Helen's Garden Renovation Project

I am sad to report that the rhododendron that I planted in memory of Dave on the first anniversary of his death has gone to join Dave.

It flowered well this year, but then half of it died, so I cut off the dead part hoping that the rest would survive, but unfortunately it didn’t. I will do a post mortem soon, by digging it up and looking at the roots, but my primary suspect is vine weevil. I shall replace the soil and have another go next spring.

The heatwave has broken. Last night we had a good dose of rain, which meant that weeding this morning was very easy – the soil was soft on the top, but still very dry underneath, so it was easy to shake the soil off the roots. I continued to tidy up, and have now measured the area that I will be developing in Phase 3.

One of my log-effect stepping stones has come unstuck. I’m going to get some adhesive to stick it back down again, but I have decided to wait until after this winter in case any others break away from the foundation, because then I can mend them all in one go. I have such faith in my mortaring ability.

As if the garden and the Renovation Project didn’t have enough to contend with during the heatwave, I have cruelly dealt them a blow by signing up for some extra hours at my job as an Information Analyst at Hampshire County Council. The lilies, bursting into bloom and filling the garden with their fragrance, seem to reproachfully ask, “What have pivot tables got that we haven’t?”







And how can you compare fat, glossy blueberries with SQL code?






Well, I’ve done it now, and somehow I am going to have to keep the Renovation progressing. For the time being I am continuing to tidy up, taking the rubble to the tip every week, weeding, and cutting back the over-enthusiastic shrubs. The next stage is to measure up the right hand side of the garden and draw up a plan – which at least I can do on the train to work.

Here is some astilbe, which deserves a special mention for keeping cheerful during the heatwave.

(Note for any over-zealous taxpayers: I made the pivot table as a joke. I do not do any sausage-related work for Hampshire County Council).

Last year I spent the whole time moaning about the amount of rain we were getting. Now I am about to start moaning about the lack of rain and the heatwave. The shallow pond is nearly dry, and the level of the raised pond has fallen by at least 15 cm. For Phase 3 to start, I need to tidy up this:

This means moving heavy things about, and I could do with it being a bit cooler. I have also been digging up the remains of the grass so that the turves can start breaking down, and that’s very difficult when the ground is so dry. After taking the picture, I emptied the grey bags, which contained nearly-ready leaf mould, onto the top of the turves, which I piled up in the large hole at the end of the lawn area. I need a few trips to the dump to get rid of my rubble, and then I can start working out what I am going to do in Phase 3.

However, I have been much refreshed by the Morello cherries. I ate them all raw in the end. Maybe when I have more time I’ll try cooking them, but they were really very nice as they were.

We have had hot, dry weather for two weeks now, and I have been doing my gardening in the morning when it’s cool. Mainly, I am weeding, cutting things back, watering, and tidying up the area to the right of the garden ready for Phase 3. I am also making trips to the tip to get rid of the rubble that I definitely won’t need for Phase 3. I used a lot of slabs from the old paths to hold down compost bags to keep weeds and cats off the bare areas while I was working on Phase 2, but now that most of the area is planted I don’t need so many of them. I have been taking advantage of the low pond levels to get the slime and leaves out of my shallow pond. It is much easier and more pleasant than it was in winter.

Today is the date when I officially lost the Willowherb Elimination Stakes for the seventeenth successive year.

I also found out that Morello cherries taste very nice raw when they’re thoroughly ripe. And that my blueberries aren’t ripe yet.

I can hardly believe it, but today I have finished Phase 2 of the Garden Renovation Project. Phase 2 consists of installing the hard landscaping and plants in the left hand side of the garden and along the back fence up to the greenhouse. I have installed 10 large stepping stones (60 cm square) and 10 smaller stepping stones. I have also installed too many plants to count. It was a lot. Although I will probably add more plants to the area in due course, I have finished the hard landscaping and therefore I am going to call it complete. It is about time something got finished.

I decided in the end to lay all the stepping stones myself, mainly because I didn’t find anyone who was willing to do the job properly. I didn’t want to pay someone to just put four or five blobs of mortar down. I started off being very bad at laying stepping stones, but I think I improved. Either that, or my standards got lower. Last Sunday, I made the screed for the penultimate slab, and when I laid the slab on top, it was at the right height and perfectly level the first time. I could hardly believe it. Today I got it right the second time. I think that when I have surrounded the slabs with plants to hide the edges, they will look absolutely fine. Here is the view of the stepping stone route from the back of the garden.

And now it is time to start planning Phase 3, which involves the right hand side of the garden. I was going to get someone to lay a path parallel to the fence because that’s the route I take to empty my kitchen compost bin, but now I have decided that I am not all that bad at laying stepping stones, maybe I will do it myself with stepping stones after all. I also need to concrete in some posts to make a trellis for my four blackberry plants, and make a small pond to look at while I am doing the washing up.

Meanwhile, the Willowherb Elimination Stakes have got underway again, and I am preparing for my usual comprehensive defeat.

On Friday I said goodbye to the cherry tree in my front garden. Although it improved a lot after I dug out the rubble under its roots some years ago, it never looked as attractive in the spring or autumn as other cherry trees in the vicinity. It had also been planted too high up, so that there was a slope down to the edging and the roots stuck up out of the lawn. I had been thinking of removing it, but had thought that my neighbour would not like the loss of the amenity. But then my neighbour said that she didn’t like the branches overhanging her drive because the birds sat on them and made a mess on her car, so I asked her if she would mind me getting rid of it, and she said no, so I called in Cedardale, who dispatched it efficiently and humanely.

On the other hand, the Morello cherry tree kindly given to me last summer by a student’s parents, has set fruit, and I have netted it in its pot by sticking four bamboo canes at the corners and tying the netting to them.

It would be nice if I could plant it in the ground next year, but I don’t have a lot of hope I will have progressed that far by then. Still, today I mortared in another stepping stone, which only leaves four, and then I will have finished the left hand side of the garden.

I am continuing to plant between the stepping stones. This morning I decided that I might as well install one of the remaining square stepping stones myself, as it can’t be seen from the house and won’t look bad if it’s not perfectly aligned. As usual, I covered it with seed trays to stop myself stepping on it while the mortar sets. Also as usual, I took a long time doing the job, but I’m moderately happy with the end result. I think that, with practice, maybe I am getting slightly better at it.

This is what the whole area of stepping stones and plants looks like so far:

And I think it looks pretty much as I imagined it. The main problem at the moment is that the cats are digging a lot of holes in the area, so I am having to leave bits of crazy paving all around to help to prevent them doing it. The cat scarers probably have some effect, but they don’t completely work. As the plants expand, this will stop being a problem.

I missed my annual planting of an ericaceous plant on the anniversary of Dave’s death because the prolonged cold weather meant I wasn’t ready to plant anything. So today, on the third anniversary of Dave’s funeral, I planted a red dwarf azalea and put a stone toad next to it.

I know it is very difficult to see the azalea because it is so tiny, but it is very young and it is meant to be a dwarf.

It has been very windy today and yesterday, and the scent of the apple blossom wafted around as I dug the hole for the azalea. The lilacs are out, and so are other people’s wisterias, and yet the camellias have not finished flowering yet, and even the magnolias have not quite yet shot their bolt. This is the prettiest early May that I remember for a long time.

It is no longer freezing cold every day. I had thought that when the weather warmed up, we would then get loads of rain and still wouldn’t be able to do any gardening, but I was too pessimistic. This weekend and last weekend we have had a lot of dry weather, and I have been getting on with filling the areas around the stepping stones with plants.

The plant midway between the apple trees is an Acca sellowiana, or pineapple guava. I grew it from seed. I also have an Acca in the front garden, but I bought that one as a plant. So far, neither has flowered. To the left of the Acca is a peony, which has been sitting in a pot for several years. I have also planted five winter-flowering heathers to give a bit of interest outside summer. I decided not to think too much about how to allocate my low-growing perennials to the gaps between the stepping stones. I am just going to plant things somewhere, and see what does best where, and move the plants about later if necessary. I am using thyme, Vinca minor, Saxifraga x urbium (London Pride), Phlox subulata and Geranium sanguinem to start with, although I haven’t planted all of these yet.

Tomorrow is going to be the hottest day of the year so far (23C), and I plan to plant some more things in the morning, so I will have to make sure they are very well watered. After that, I will have dramatically fewer pots to water, which will free up lots of time for huge amounts of weeding in between my newly planted plants. Sigh.

After my last post, I started my new job, and the temperature dropped to around freezing and stayed there. I wore thermal underwear to work and left the garden to its own devices. Fortunately, the garden wasn’t in the mood for much in the way of devices. Normally my camellia would have been covered in flowers by now, and would have been for some days, and I would be adoringly taking pictures, but this year the first flower did not appear until 7th April. That’s not to say that the garden is still totally asleep. The pieris is rather good. I saw a bee paying it some attention last week, although I haven’t seen any bees since then.

And hellebores are always good for a long-lasting show.

Today, at last, the temperature was well above freezing and it wasn’t raining, so it was time to make some more mortar and get some stepping stones embedded. I managed to do three of the log-effect stones in about three hours and I was happy with that. Once again I have covered the newly laid stones with upturned seed trays. It is the only way to stop myself stepping on them.

There is now one log-effect stone still to do, and six large square ones. I have had a lot of trouble getting someone to quote for laying the six large slabs. The only quote I had was for £180, and he was going to only put four blobs of mortar down – not even five blobs! Maybe I will do the job myself after all. Although I still think it’s a very difficult job to do, I also think I am getting better at it. At least, I could do the slab around the corner that can’t be seen from the house and probably wouldn’t look too bad if I did it. And we have got two bank holidays coming up in May.

However, the most pressing thing now is to get my J Parkers plants into the ground. Now that most of the stepping stones are in place, I should be able to dig holes around them and plant the area up. This is what it’s all about, after all.