How on earth is it the middle of August already? Where has the time gone?
I've been away this weekend visiting friends, which was wonderful, but I still managed to get a reasonable amount of garden time in during the week, both before and after work.
Sitting in the garden is incredibly enjoyable at the moment (providing the weather is reasonable). Some parts of the garden look beautiful, and bring me lots of joy. The Crocosmia (lucifer variety) are just stunning. I can't take credit for the wooden sleepers, they were in place when we bought the house. I think they really complete the look though, allowing the lucifer to spill over the top. They bring such a fabulous burst of colour to the garden.
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| This picture does not do the Crocosmia justice! |
This week my husband started digging out the foundations for our second vegetable bed. Last week, he pulled back the membrane that was in place in that area and found a load of bricks underneath, that had foundations themselves! Luckily, his parents were on hand to make a trip down to lend us a pickaxe - and thankfully they then weren't too difficult to remove. Goodness knows how many there are though, thus far we've only removed enough to dig the next lot of foundations!
I've carried on doing a lot of weeding this week, especially on the steps that lead to the back right corner of the garden. I came across quite a few bramble plants (no fruit, just prickly stems in completely the wrong places). I have cut them back but will need to try to dig them out at some point. One evening I also cut back all the euphorbia seed heads, as they had really gone past their best.
This week I've also spent quite a bit of time cutting up the wood from the tree-behind-the-compost-bin. The thinner bits were chopped into small pieces and went into the compost bin. The wider bits, where possible, have been cut small enough to easily fit into the car. I used the loppers, and it actually felt like quite hard work! That's my exercise for the week :). The bits that are too wide for the loppers are still long, and will need sawing in half so we can get them in the car and take them to the garden waste section of our tip.
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| This was before it was all chopped up. |
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| This is all that's left of the tree! |
I also carried on doing a little hedge trimming, so the left-hand side hedge is pretty much done in the back garden. We have a little more to do in the front garden, and then we need to decide what to do with the leylandii (right-hand side of the back garden). We got a quote for having it cut back professionally, as it's quite tall and we're not sure we'd manage the top, however it seemed pretty expensive. We are going to maybe get some more quotes, and I will probably ask my in-laws for advice as well. I guess it might partly depend on what we do with the clematis, as it's kind of entwined in the leylandii. Maybe that's why it was so expensive.
The other garden task that we achieved this week was treating the lawn. I wrote a post about it here. I rained hard on Friday, so the feed should now be active and hopefully it's improving the lawn as we speak! The week after next I'll need to scarify it, but for now I can leave it to do its job.
We gained a few new plants last weekend when my parents visited, including a couple of begonias. It's nice to have some more pots on the patio, I really think they add something to the garden.
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| Begonia, in a pot that used to belong to my granny. |
Other than that, we have found time to enjoy the sunshine in our garden, including drinking some delicious strawberry fizz that we were given as a wedding present back in March. It does feel like summer is slipping away a little bit already, so I'm trying to make it last as long as possible :).
On that note, I'll sign off.
Happy gardening!
Jenny
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| Obviously the photo has had filters applied as it was instagrammed! |
Happy gardening!
Jenny
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