A HUGE space to deal with!

What an achievement Spritz the worst part is always the clearance of weeds especially when you are being careful to save other plants in the same area. The planning and planting are a different matter lol. I don't know about tomorrow I would be aching for a week !! Well done try and have a few days off now-as if !!!

Oh Spritz,what a lot of hard work,but the result was well worth it ! Recognise the "nettle stings" bit..still have lots to remove here,but our long shade border is taking shape and showing lots of signs of new spring growth.

Love your choise of shade loving plants,especially the hellebores...really must seek out some more ourselves.
You must be exhausted !

Good effort.
Does this mean you will have to get back on youre hands and knees to see youre Hellebores again?

No - this part of the garden is up on a walled bank - that was another problem in doing all the work, I had to climb up and down!!! It is a good place for Hellebores, though!

Spritz...did you have some Radox handy ? Lol

No - I am OK now - but tomorrow I shall be feeling it - probably in the backs of my legs!

I have to admit to feeling a bit weary... :-O (meant to be a yawn!)

: )....try to take it easy,and dont panic..lots of time before the visitors arrive !

Well done spritz, you’ve worked so hard you’ll sleep well tonight!

Thanks - and BB, I'm not in a panic, honestly! It just needed doing and it was an eye-sore!

what a fantastic makeover and done properly too spritz.
i know what you mean about the lamium. i too have it in bucketfuls and last weekend i cleared a 15 x 5 area of it, wild parnsip, Jack by the hedge and lesser celandine. i had to be carefull not to disturb a few little gems. I have Mitella as a groundcover and helibores and a beautiful white aconitum possibly 'ivorine' and i found the first shoots of dicentra spectabilis alba poking through.

just think how beautiful it will be when every thing has settled in. do you like pulmonaria? rubra is such a good one for deep shade and flowers its little heart out.

i hope you have a good nights sleep and feel fit for another day tomorrow. hope you get rid of your prickle.

: ) : )

well done. it looks great.

Thanks!

Yes, Sbg, I have quite a lot of Pulmonaria elsewhere - that's one of the plants I am hoping to split. I am not familiar with Mitella...I'll have to look it up!

On order I have an Iris foetidissima 'Citrina' so that will go in that area. :-)

I thought I'd split my blue Aconitum and plant some right at the back in front of the fence as they are tall - ready for the autumn! I want some Geranium phaeum to go in - my friend has some she says she can dig up for me.

Dicentra? I'll have to buy those - also some more bluebells 'in the green'.

A good job well done, Spritz and those hellebores do look nice. All followed by a well earned G&T?
I thought I saw a lot of cyclamen leaves in the first two pictures, or is that Lamium?

Yes, Bulbaholic - that's the baddie! It has attractive variegated leaves, and yellow flowers later on. But my goodness - does it spread! I still have lots and lots of it - I am leaving some, though. I may regret that...we'll see.

Great excuse for more Hellebores, wasn't it!

All that hard work as paid of, it looks really well, hope you slept well last night.

All your hard work was definitely worthwhile! Your new planting looks amazing, the whole area will look wonderful in no time at all!

What an improvement now. It's wonderful being there in the garden isn't it . I do like the helebore with green stamens.

Thanks...I've done some more to it today! I added some pieces of pulmonaria and managed to split my Carex morrowii to get two little clumps...there's still a lot of empty space, though.

Hywel - its name is 'Walberton's Ivory Prince'. Yes, hard work but great to be able to work out there!

Thanks. I'm going to look for one.

Good work Spritz, what a great project, such a big improvement, i love the colours you have gone for in this area, will look amazing once all established...oh and congrats on your 100 th blog xx

Thanks, Angie! I noticed that, and I wondered if anyone else would. :-)

Since I finished this large area as far as I can, I have been crawling behind the Pampas grass and monster Phormium, to try to get the weeds out before they spread back. The space between the fence and the plants is about 2' - I have now discovered where the bindweed is coming from!!!! The trouble is that most of the brambles and nettles are rooted in the field behind the fence. Not exactly easy to deal with!

OUCH! keeps coming out of my mouth, and poor Henry was howling because he could hear me, but not see me in the jungle!! LOL.

oh bless him, i remeber a few years back when in the garden with dear old bud, i caught him tring to plant weeds in the middle of the lawn, bless him he was copying me. i was pulling out the weeds and planting bedding plants, and he was digging holes in the lawn putting in the weeds that i had just taken out and covering them over....funny things they do.

My goodness, what a lot of fantastic work you've done there, I shall have to take a leaf out of your book because I have a patch at the end of our plot which was all over grown, Ive cleared a lot of it but havent planted much yet, just a couple of hellebores, snow drops in the green which I split from our front garden and a laurel hedge. I like Hellebores but dont know much about them. Do they naturalise and spread? I have a lot of photos to take, of all the different projects going on, will have to make the effort and find the time during work lunch breaks.

Some Hellebores do seed themselves, so you keep your eye open round the plants for babies. Sadly, they probably won't come 'true' to the parent, as these are hybrids. I live in hope, The norfolk! Thanks for your kind comment. :-) It was a lot of work, but worth it.

Wistfully I read the words Ceanothus and Weeping Pear (Pyrus salicifolia pendula). I visited Sissinghurst once back in the 80's and brought back (as a real treasure!) a ceanothus like the powder blue ones which grow up those marvelous old brick walls. It simply cannot make it in this climate here in Switzerland. I lost the battle (and so did the ceanothus).

Pyrus: Can you believe that the sale of these wonderful garden gems is now forbidden here in this country (Switzerland)? It is because of the fruit farming. Any tree which can spread the dread disease "Firebrand" is no longer to be found on sale in garden centers. This even includes Cotoneasters of all kinds and ornamental quince.

Oh. Not a lot I can say, except I'm sorry that you aren't able to grow this lovely tree. And all those other shrubs!!