26.09. Amazing weather

Some great things are happening in my garden! Well, they aren’t happening all by themselves, I am the one doing the stuff, but it’s beginning to look great, if you know what I mean! I have been meaning to do a big redesign of the beds in my garden, and after a whole summer of practically no gardening at all due to my recent operation, I am just itching to get started. It is a bit too soon after my operation to do anything major work, but with all the good weather we have had lately, I just could not help myself, I just had to give it a go :-)

Speaking of weather, have you seen the forecast for the next 10 days? If you live somewhere else than the UK, I can tell you that we are experiencing rather unusually warm weather at the moment, more like the weather we were supposed to have in July and August. It is not that uncommon to have a warm spell in September here in the UK, but we are after all in the last week of September and although the temperatures in this forecast are only going to 26 degrees, according to BBC we might even see 27 or 28 degrees on Friday. Yes, please, I don’t mind a bit of that, thank you, better late than never :-)

So, back to my garden, here is what it looked like until I started ripping out things last week, and it is the bed on the front right side I have turned my attention to first. The Crocosmias are finished flowering, and although they are meant to stay in the ground until early spring and only then have the dead stalks taken out, I took a chance and pulled them out now. I might get a bit reduced flowering next summer because of that, but it will only be for one year and get back to usual the following year. It is worth it, and was necessary to get access to the bed.

Here is the flowerbed, after brushing away all the gravel, removing the small paving slabs that used to be alongside the bed and after removing the crocosmia stalks. The ground was hard as concrete after years of walking on it so at this point I had to pour bucket after bucket of water on it and leave overnight to soak into the ground, as I was not strong enough to get a spade into it. I must add here that I am doing all the work sitting on a stool, as I can’t yet stand up doing work like this so this is a slow and painstaking work – well at times painful too, but it is work I enjoy doing so aches and pains are forgotten when I can see progress.

Here is next day’s work, plus a bit the day after that – yes, I don’t think anyone would employ me as a landscape gardener with the tempo I work at, but I do get the work done eventually :-) I am laying down some bulbs for next spring whilst digging up the bed anyway; I bought some daffodil bulbs in Asda which was only £5 for 60 bulbs. This area will be full of nodding yellow daffodils next spring! I also found a great company online for bulbs with reasonable prices and delivery charges, and have put in an order with them. I am waiting for the delivery from them and those bulbs are also going in here. The company is GEE TEE BULB COMPABY. Next spring I will be able to tell you how the bulbs from them are doing :-)

And this is as far as I got yesterday, Sunday, I started lying down logroll for the bed border and will continue this the whole way around the garden eventually. That’s going to take most of the autumn and possibly part of the winter too, as it is hard work that I can only do a bit here and a bit there of. The plan is to get bigger beds, just a small path around the beds, get rid of all the grass and have gravel on all the paths. No more lawn mowing, more plants and a more practical garden. It will look great in the end, but it will look like a construction site for a long time. But I love planning things like this, even if it is on a shoestring budget, and I don’t mind doing the work either, gardening isn’t really work. Housework like vacuuming and dusting is work; gardening is just relaxing and fun :-)

I didn’t get anything done in the garden today; have had a long day to UCH hospital today and I wasn’t home until 6:45pm, by which time I was knackered and it was almost dark. Tomorrow is also a hospital day, but I will be home earlier so I will get to do a bit in the garden at least. But the rest of the week the sun will be shining and I can be found in my garden doing what I like best :-) I will update you when there is something to report, see you next time!