Progress!

The roses have been relocated, at last! And, after much digging, spreading  and raking, we laid a paving stone base for the table and chairs. So all (all!!) that’s left to do on the top lawn is to spread more top soil to even out the remaining dips when the DIY stores have bargain bags of (non-peat) compost, sow grass seed and wait. I’m also very tempted to remove more of the scruffier patches of turf as even the bare patches of mud put some of the worst areas to shame. But it’s time consuming, hard work and weather dependent so we’ll have to see how committed I am. The lawn is never going to be a bowling green; at best it will do for petanque or a game of cross-country croquet.

The last of the leeks have been blanched and frozen, the frost killed off the rosemary bush, the paving stones have been robbed to form “Jon’s patio”; in short, the veg patch is looking pretty bare. We planted a couple of new lavender plants round the edge as insect-repellants but we need to plan properly what is going where in the coming months. We also invested in some fancy grasses and heathers. Originally the heathers were to fill in the gaps in the rockery and the grasses were to go in with the alpines which were such a disappointment last year. So, instead, the grasses have been planted in the rockery to provide variety and the heathers will take their place in the alpine patch. They should provide a bit of colour anyway, when I get round to it.

Next Project: The Lawn. Stage 1. And a few snowy photos ..

The weather was fine enough for gardening over the weekend so we decided to make a start on flattening the lawn in preparation for making a solid base for the table and chairs. We removed most of the top layer of grass in the area that dipped the most, dug it over, added some hard core for drainage i.e. leftover gravel and recycled (broken up) terracotta pots, spread two bins’ worth of home-made compost and relaid some of the turf we had removed to level off the lowest parts. We then moved to the adjacent section; this had the greatest slope. I dug it over, removing masses of iris tubers, fruit bush roots and blind daffodil bulbs, and moved soil from the top of the slope to fill in the dip and lower down, whilst Jon went and found unused boulders and rocks from other parts of the garden (as you do) to form a small wall. It sounds so easy in print but it took us hours and a hot bath to soothe the aching muscles. By the time we’d finished on Sunday afternoon, it  looked like this:

Sami shows off the lawn

Several hours later, it looked like this:

Several hours later ...

No more gardening! So we went out and did this:

and this:

Well, we didn’t actually go UP Snowdon. We just took photos from a safe distance.

The dogs thought the snowy weather was fabulous, apart from the snowballs that accumulated round their legs.

The current sleet looks like it’s doing its best to turn to proper snow so the only garden task over the next few days will be replenishing the birdfeeders.

So that’s what all those things in the shed are for!

Sometime between the boiler-breaking, pipe-freezing icy weather and the “is that a banshee up the chimney?” howling gales and hail, I actually managed to get out into the garden and do some maintenance work. Jon had disappeared off with Sami for a challenging walk; Megan was miserable as she had just been speyed and had to stay behind with me. So I decided to do some gardening to distract and placate her. If you can measure how much work you have done by the number of tools you have used, well, I did a lot; a hoe, a pair of secateurs, three different types of rake, along with a trug and a wheelbarrow. It was relatively mild so the fuschias got pruned – their scruffiness has been irritating me for weeks – and I toiled away, hoeing and raking various beds and the veg patch until I achieved a fine tilth. In fact it seems a real shame now to plant anything in them and destroy the effect. Of course, the other way to tell you’ve put in a day’s graft is by now much you ache afterwards. I obviously worked very hard. Nevertheless, the following morning we were out in the garden again, stacking logs, and we finally got around to removing the fruit bush stumps from the lawn. Now, weather permitting, we’re ready to start levelling it off as we plan to relocate the table and chairs there as it has the best view in the garden.

It’s the New Year …

.. and my main contribution to gardening since the beginning of November has been to find a permanent home for Stevie G. the gnome (he was temporarily behind bars but we’ll gloss over that). Stevie adds the only splash of colour in a garden that is completely white with frost at the moment. We did a bit of leaf clearing – actually three hours worth – when we returned from Rome but the following day it appeared that someone had emptied a skipful or two of leaves in the middle of the night right across the garden. In December, we spent a weekend in Prague then enjoyed a quiet Christmas and New Year, visits to vets and a particularly raucous and vicious game of Monopoly notwithstanding. So the roses haven’t been relocated yet, nor has progress been made on any of the other grand plans. In my defence, the weather is absolutely freezing. We have water coming into the house since we went on to Mains water last year, but it’s not moving around the house very well – if at all – and the pipes going out from the bathroom sink have frozen. C’est la vie!

Roman Holiday

No gardening during the last week as we were in Roma! Our first visit and it won’t be our last. After living La Dolce Vita on the Via Veneto on Saturday night to celebrate Jon’s 40th birthday, we did as the Romans do on Sunday morning and promenaded in the parkland of the Villa Borghese.   

The boating lake in the Villa Borghese, Rome.

I was very impressed that they have managed to retain their boating lake. I hope that the contractors currently renovating Sefton Park in Liverpool reinstate the boats on their (much larger!) boating lake, but that’s probably too much to hope for.

One of Jon’s presents was a garden gnome from Cathy, but he’s not just any old gnome, he’s wearing a Liverpool Football Club strip – see below!

Stevie G

He was briefly called Kenny (after the King) but as Jon pointed out during the match against Atletico Madrid, if we don’t win anything we may have to Kill Kenny at the end of the season (one for South Park fans). So when Steven Gerrard was awarded a penalty in extra time we promised that we would rename the gnome in his honour if he stuck it away. How could we doubt him! So Stevie G is currently residing on the lounge window ledge until we find somewhere suitable in the garden where he can’t be damaged by rain, wind, frost, sunlight etc.

Autumn

I’ve done a few odd jobs around the garden in between the rain showers. Last week I removed the majority of the iris rhizomes from the top lawn area. That was very weird as it was like unearthing a network of carrots that were threatening to overtake the world, a bit like a triffid invasion, but the dogs thought it was good fun. I’ve also pruned the roses in preparation for moving them. I did most of them the end of last week but I only finished the last few off this morning. Unfortunately it has now started to snow so I’m a little worried about them.

Autumn is probably the most picturesque time of the year to visit Snowdonia as the foliage turns various shades of gold, copper and bronze. This is the view from our study window, taken before the snow flurry:

View from the study window

The birds have become used to the new locations of the table and feeders. The bird table had been far busier just as I was about to take this photograph, but then we had a visit from two of our woodpeckers. You can see ‘dad’ at the top of the electricity pole and ‘junior’ is hanging from the peanut feeder at the back but he’s a little obscured. Robin and a cheeky chaffinch stayed around but the rest scattered.

As I took the camera out, the dogs jumped up on the sofa ready to be snapped so I couldn’t resist. Jon has them well-trained when he’s out walking; every time he stops they adopt a pose.

Say cheese!

The Clearing Out Stage: I think I’ve sort of finished …

As the autumn weekend weather has been better than that we enjoyed all summer, we’ve been busy bees in the garden. The birdtable has been moved from the front to the back lawn to complement its “natural” theme.

back garden with birdtable

The uncovered slate path now draws you in and leads somewhere, the birdtable, whilst the asymmetric placement and heights of the boulders complement each other. Around the corner, hidden from view when you enter the garden from this side, is the little stone bench for rest and contemplation. The muted green and grey tones of the grass, hedges (but not for much longer), rocks and garden ornaments are in contrast with the constant, colourful fluttering of birds visiting the table. Aah! You’d almost think I’d planned it that way!!

Our next major project is to sort out the main lawn.

The top lawn before shot

We want the area to be more formal, with a ‘dining room’ at the far end.  Relocating the rose bushes to the lower bed will probably be a cinch compared to the other jobs we need to do. I’ve stripped away a lot of the top bed now and cleared away most of the weeds from around the steps:

Steps to top lawn, after clearing

but they need to be made more secure as they are rather precarious if you are carrying trays of food in or out, a bit like It’s a Knockout but not as funny. However, the biggest challenge will be levelling the lawn. The fruit bush stumps and iris rhizomes must be dug out, and all – and there are many – dips need to be filled in.

It’s not all about change for cosmetic reasons though. One of the tasks we did last weekend was to clear the top of the driveway of saplings and brambles. The view when driving out was becoming obscured; not desirable when you’re on the bend of a fast road. It’s not until you get stuck into a task like that that you realise just how overgrown it has become and in a relatively short space of time.

The Clearout Stage: The end is in sight …

Nearly finished now. It’s been hard work and my arms have ached for days afterwards from wielding the shears but the benefits are visible – no more photos to share, you’ll just have to take my word for it. We’re nearly ready for The Moving of Existing Plants Stage, but the roses are still blooming so I don’t want to relocate them just yet. They are noticeably ‘leggy’ compared to previous years, presumably as they’ve been stretching to find the sun (haven’t we all). The leeks are still doing well. We have still  a fair few left even though I’ve been using them in the kitchen for a while but I have been carefully selecting them to thin them out. We’ve started making tentative plans for the veg garden next year; leeks in the front right hand quadrant as we’ve never been particularly successful there so the leeks may break up and improve the soil texture, and beans in the quadrant behind where the leeks currently are. The other half will be given over to herbs, talking of which I’ve nearly finished ‘My Little Book of Herbs’. I’m now at the proofreading stage so I should have it finished before I go on holiday.

The Clearout Stage 2

My Little Book of Herbs has taken a backseat of late as – shock! horror! – I’ve actually been getting my gloves dirty in the garden! In between bouts of bright sunshine and belting, rainy hail, I decided to uncover the slate path in the patch of garden behind the house. This part of the garden is fairly sheltered and sunny so it’s where we put out the deckchairs and hammocks. However, we’ve never managed to give the place an identity of its own although over the years we’ve adorned it with various pots, a stone bench and patio fruit trees to try and make it more interesting.

As I was stripping back the grass that had accumulated over the years, I found other boulders under the turf that I had forgotten about or didn’t even know were there. It’s a difficult to see from the photo below – it was raining and I didn’t want to leave the shelter of the conservatory – and the garden may still appear a little bleak, but at least it’s not as bland and unfocussed as it was before, which is a far worse accusation.

The back garden

We thought of planting shade loving bulbs by the hedge so they may be seen out of the windows, but I’m now considering containerised heathers in pinks, lilacs and whites to complement the grey tones of the boulders.

So, in line with our current clearout campaign, I decided to take the garden back to its roots. The cottage is built on bedrock on the side of a valley, so immovable boulders are part and parcel of what makes the house unique. My geology is very, very shaky but, apart from slate as you would expect, I think we are built on limestone, which explains why calcicole plants such as hydrangeas and rhododendrons thrive in the garden, interspersed with white quartz that looks stunning when you strip away the moss and it glints in the sun.

Quartz rocks, in the rain

For the past week we have set about stripping away the weeds, ferns and grass that have been obscuring the rocks, dry-stone walls and paths that form the skeleton of the garden.  It’s a labour intensive but cheap (the cost of a packet of Ibuprofen to counter the aches and pains) way of freshening up the look of the garden.

Sami inspecting the cleared footpath

There’s still more work to be done, as can be clearly seen below!

The next are to be tackled

We’ve also brought out the main bird feeding station out of storage and relocated to it under the lounge window. The wall beneath it was a jumbled jungle of brambles, nettles, discarded oregano and mint, and another unidentifiable creeper. I would have taken a ‘before’ photo but quite frankly it would have been rather embarrassing.

A soaked Megan under the bird feeder

There is a wall underneath the weeds

 

The Clearout: Stage 1

The weekend before last I hacked all the old blackcurrant bushes down – a shame but they were well past their best – and folded up the main table and chairs to put them into storage. Suddenly, the lawn seemed larger than it had ever been and new plans sprung to mind. The view opened up by the removal of the bushes is probably the best in the garden, so I’m now resisting the idea of using the decked area at the bottom as our main outside ‘dining room’. I think it’s easier to get to from the kitchen as well but Jon disputes this.

 

This weekend I tackled the top bed of the garden. I sheared through feral strawberries and enormous nettles – one of the herbs that Woden bestowed on humankind. The irony of removing these edible, very successful ‘weeds’ when our chosen crops had fared so badly wasn’t lost on me. Didn’t stop me though, and I had the aching and nettled limbs to prove it on Sunday.  It’s not quite finished but it was a very good start. And I also weeded the annual, soon to be rose, bed and cut most of the Welsh lilies down for good measure. Postie should appreciate that as they were collapsing onto the path. I should have taken before and after photos. Jon made me cups of coffee to keep me going; he was supposed to be walking up mountains and had taken time off work to do so, but returned from Swansea with the office cold so was restricted to walking the dogs round the field in between doses of Lemsip and Beechams. After the beautiful weather we enjoyed at the weekend, it’s now taken a nosedive so I will be returning my attention back to redecorating the hall.