Helen's Garden Renovation Project

After my last post, I had one more mild, dry day, in which I laid two more stepping stones and dug the hole for the next one. The next day it rained pretty much all day, so I went to B&Q to buy more sand and cement. I estimate I am getting through slightly less than one bag of sand for each stepping stone, so I bought four more bags. I was busy all day on Friday and Saturday on other things, and in any case, it rained quite a lot on Friday. Today, however, I spent about an hour digging holes and choosing my pieces of rubble foundation for the final three stepping stones. It was only just above freezing, and we have some harsh temperatures coming up, so it would not have been wise to do any mortaring. At least I am now ready to get going as soon as more spring-like conditions turn up.

Tomorrow, the temperature is forecast not to get above freezing, so I have taken a picture of my beautiful early rhododendron before it goes brown.

Early rhododendron just beginning to get going before the frost tonight

Today was the warmest day of the year so far, and I decided that it was the first day of spring because I saw my first brimstone butterfly of the year.

Yesterday and today I was able at last to get on with mortaring the log effect stepping stones in place. As these are about a third of the size of the square ones, it was a much easier job. As the great tits shrieked, “Teacher! Teacher!” I laid four stones over the two days. It was quite hard to get a good picture because it was so sunny, but here’s my best effort.

First four log-effect stepping stones

The black plant trays are there so I could put them on top of the stepping stones after photographing them. This reminds me not to walk on them. I find it very hard to remember otherwise. It’s possible that tomorrow may be another dry day, and I may be able to get another two in place, and then I will be more than halfway there. I am so looking forward to being able to plant things in the area.