What have we been up to - Pt 2 Garden

I can't believe it was back in August that Julie started on the long border in our garden. It was hard work for her to clear it out and get ready for planting but once done we had a session with her to choose the plants. Julie brought some books and we spent time looking at the most gorgeous pictures.

The planting is finished including lots of bulbs ready for spring. I say finished but there is one more item to go in the border but we have to wait for that to be delivered. We decided to put a couple of clematis in to grow up the wall and in between those a climbing rose. It's the rose that we have to wait for and it probably won't arrive until sometime in the new year or so. We chose Teasing Georgia Climbing and I can't wait for it to arrive and be planted in the prime spot.

Here are some before and after pictures of the border. We are so looking forward to seeing things grow in the spring and hope that it will look really beautiful instead of the rather muddled mess it was before.


The above two pictures show the border over winter (totally bare) and then in the height of summer, just a mass of overgrown grass type plants with no colour or structure.

Below are pictures of the border now that Julie has finished clearing and planting. It doesn't look much but hopefully we will see a big difference come next year when it all starts to grow.






I love the Autumn for walks, the beautiful colours and cosy nights by the fire but I don't like it for the dark nights and even more so for the leaves that fall. This year the oaks have had a massive crop of acorns and it seems that every acorn in the world has fallen into my agility area. They are a nightmare to clear up and it's back breaking work. That isn't very good for me as my back is very painful at the moment. The two procedures I had back in the summer haven't really worked this time which is very disappointing. Not sure quite where I go from here. I am hoping to start yoga classes so maybe some core strengthening exercises will help me.

The big leaf fall is just beginning and it's ongoing work between now and Christmas to keep on top of the leaves. Sometimes I think we should just leave them until everything has dropped but the trouble is we would be knee deep in leaves if we did that.

Most of the horse-chestnut and chestnut trees are finished and the oak leaves are starting to fall now. The oaks opposite and most of those in our garden/agility area are turning with the exception of the biggest oak which sits over our yard and sheds. That is always the last to come into leaf and the last to drop, it doesn't finish until after Christmas. It must be different species from the others but I'm not sure which. I assume the others are English Oaks but am not knowledgeable enough to identify this one. I should go and take a leaf sample and google it! Anyway, I hate leaves once they fall in case you hadn't realised!

We were very lucky last year in that we had an easterly wind when the main drop came and most of the leaves blew out across the fields. No such luck this year!

We have masses of chores to do outdoors over the winter including: re-roofing one of the sheds as it now looks very tatty sitting next to our new neat border; a new roof across the yard so that things will stay dry and not get covered with tree debris etc; decking to put round the summer house; new sheeting to be erected outside the back door for cover when it's raining; a car port for my little van; new larger-gauge gravel to go on the drive because I am so fed up with the tiny gravel which gets everywhere; mower shed to be racked out; fish pond to be cleared out and fix the filter and so on .....

All good fun and keeps us out of trouble!