Progress

Today I spent three hours in the garden weeding, pulling the never ending (this year) bind weed, cutting down big brambles (ouch) and eventually sawing the very thick and twisted trunks of an old rosemary bush (that was my quick win!)

I tried to sort some huge clumps of red hot polker, I’ve clearly not paid attention to them enough over the last few years as I didn’t realise how much they moult dead leaves from below. I cut the leaves back a bit as I need to see where the wooden panelling below (short raised bed retaining wall) is starting to rot. I think it will be replaced very soon as it’s causing the land that it is supposedly retaining to fall onto the lawn.

I attempted to sort the puzzle that is a load of blackcurrant bushes/canes. I’ve really neglected them as it’s been hidden by the red hot polker plants. It’s continued to grow, almost horizontally behind and under other plants and it appears to have woven itself into a knotty fence like structure. I’ve cut lots of it but there is tons left and I’m wondering if it’s worth digging up and replanting in a better space, a couple of metres away, where it can get light, spread and not feel crowded.

After a mixed weather day it is finally a sunny evening and very warm (an unexpected treat). I’m sitting out in it to make the most.

Todays’s blip has to be this creation. This morning there was a collapsed gravel path here. All the thin pieces of wood around the steps had rotted away. It had become stressful if anyone had to go into the garden as we had to warn them to watch where they were treading. It felt like walking on shifting sands (only there was gravel and wood and bricks in there). I helped carry the reclaimed oak railway sleepers (only a bit as I couldn’t manage much) and then MrH used small logs to roll them some of the way. It was much easier to use the logs rather than carry. I could lift them a bit and help push them into position but it felt pretty tricky. He repurposed some Victorian tiles and the gravel that was left over. The house now has a decent path/slope. It’s pretty sturdy and neat looking and I’m hopeful it will be ok in the ice. What a relief!