FALLING TREES !

On Satureday I was putting some things away in the new winter store when I noticed that an old dead elder tree that sits behind our back fence on the recreation ground was no longer there!

Great I thought They have finally taken it down ! Then I noticed that I could see something across our back gate...

 It was the Elder tree! It had not been removed but in fact had fallen down and was resting on a fence panel between our next door neighbour and us and not only that some of the top branches were sitting / resting on the roof of the shed we'd recently given him !

 At present we don't think it's caysed any damage.

 From outside our back fence this is the tree trunk covered in thick ivy laying across the entrance to our garden.

Paul had considered trying to push it off onto the ground for safety but it was far too heavy to move and could have resulted in an accident if he and the neighbour had tried! So of course it being the weekend , no one's replied yet to our messages to the parish council who are responsible for the ground and tree, But hopefully it will be removed soon.

This lovely Dahlia is now open.

One of the new Agapanthus.

 Crocosmia Lucifer, looks pink in this but is a bright red.

Anemonies

Tess of the d'urbervilles

 Acanthus

 The patio pots.

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THE FLOWER GARDEN BONES ARE IN PLACE

So we have completed the enlarging of the flower borders in the flower garden. This also involved as all good redesigns do, a trip to the garden centre for a feww more plants to fill a couple of spaces.

 and here it is , seen from the cloisters, looking towards the house.

 Paul pretty much completed the last border increase on his own as I had other commitments and a great job he did.

 border four on the left as you come through the gate into the flower garden.

Border three which is pretty much in the shade most of the time especially in the back corner.

Border two next up from gate on the right

 Border one to the right as you come through the gate into the flower garden area.

 The Iris bed as now had a top dressing for gravel and all the leaves have been cut down to enable the corms to get as much sun as possible so they have plenty of energy to make beautiful flowers next year.

We also obtained more of the five bar gate panels and Paul bent these to curve round the bed, with one at the far middle that can be removed so we can enter and exit for weeding etc.

 Left side

 Right side.

 Billy Bob the goat showing you where the entrance to the sundail irsi bed is.

 So that's the borders sorted, now we have to decide what we are going to put in place of the grass!

But that's for another time !

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WORKING ON THE FLOWER GARDEN CHANGES

Paul spent today working on the changes in the flower garden. I had to work this morning, so could only help out this afternoon and our daughter Lindsey also gave a hand.

 Paul moved the grass between the two pavers and put them closer together as this will be where we enter the circle to get to the sundial and also to weed or look after the plants.

 I placed all the grey bricks around the other side of the circle.

 Paul had removed the pavers on this side, where the white tray is, so now this side runs round to the pavers on the far side to the entrance.

 Paul and Lindsey removed the grass from the extended flower bed and Paul dig it over and I placed the grey bricks to edge it.

From this side you get a better idea of how it's looking.In a way it's a shame we cannot regrass the path but it would just get ruined by the dogs plus we need a path to walk on in wet weather.

 Paul planted the other row of Irises but we have room for a few more.

  We also planted the extended part of the flowerbed. So that's two down and two more to go!

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A SHOWERY WEEK

This week's been very showery but especially in the early evenings just when we've finished work so could have gone outside to continue working on the flower garden.
But at least it's allowed the garden to have a good watering which will help when we continue working on it at the weekend.

 So it's sat like this all week however we have had time to look at it and discuss it. Paul suggested taking away the pavers that allow us to walk to the sundial and to have a complete circle.
However as we are going to ring it with the same fivebar gate style metal fencing we have in the house garden and would need to be able to get into it to weed etc,I suggested keeping one side still paved.
Paul said to leave the paver on the far side as then when you enter the garden from the housethe circle would look complete, so that's what we intend to do.

 The new extended border is growing well especially since it's been getting a good watering from the rain.

 Elsewhere the Nasturtium's are looking nice and bright.

The tomato plants in the greenhouse are growing well with little tomatos already grwoing.

The meat eaters are sheltering in the greenhouse!

Everywhere is growing and green

This tray is full for rainwater .

This area in the house garden is doing well with the red hot pokers and the red lucifer starting to add some colour.

The red hot poker's growing well.

Lucifer looking tall and majestic.

The pots on the aptio are doing well.

 the other pots on the patio.



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RE-DESIGNING THE FLOWER GARDEN

Anyone who knows us, knows that we are always changing or moving or altering our garden and even house once it's been a few years since the last one.

We have been really pleased with how the Iris bed worked , having had our best display of bearded Irises ever. So we decided that we'd make the bed bigger , so we could add more Irises that would flower at different times and add more colours.

We had ordered some new irises by mailorder when the lockdown was in full swing and they had arrived a few weeks back and Paul had potted them up until we had time to recut the bed.

 Paul tied string to the sundial column and used that to dig the perfect circle round the outside of the exisiting one.

 You can see him at work here.

Now we have always wanted to make this garden full to overflowing with flowers and although it's happened in parts . it's not happened in others.

 I had always wanted to keep the grass in this part of the garden but with the dogs tearing up great chunks of it ,if they chase each other round the iris bed . I finally decided that it would be easier to do away with the grass. I have wanted to increase the four corner flowerbeds size for a while, so while Paul tackled the circle I started on removing the grass and increasing the flower bed you can see in this photo.

Casper investigates the strange line Paul's dug in the grass!

 I started removing the grass along the front of the border.

 The ground in the centre of the garden was very hard to cut into but Paul soon had the circle cut and the grass taken up.

 It was slightly easier along the border so soon had a fair bit done. But we'd started very late morning and the sun was getting quite hot despite the cool wind that was gusting about us. So we stopped for  a break and some lunch.

After lunch Paul dug and turned over the new border round the sundial and then went off to the garden centre to get some blood, fish and bone.

While he was gone I repositioned the block pavers around the new border edge, adding a few extra as it was now bigger.

While I waited for him to return , I looked at the size of the extra I had cut out for the flower border and decided it was not enough.

 So when Paul returned , we discussed increasing it and he came over to help.

 leaving the second half of the circle for later.

 Our Robin friend arrived to pick over the nicely turned soil for any tipbits.

 He even stopped for a rest while we dug over more for him !

Our garden narrows as it moves away from the house , it is also on a hill, so the garden also drops away from one side to the other! Because of these two factors we realised that we would need to work off the centre circle to have the soon to be paved area the same size all the way round.
This meant the border was widened even more nearer the covered seat.

Once Paul had finished digging over the new area, I moved the block edging forward and reset it in it's new place.

 To this we added a couple of bags of topsoil we had and we dug up all the smaller plants that had been along the edge of the old border, so that they would not get over shadowed by the new plantings.

This is the border now planted up with the plants that needed moving and some others we had waiting to be put in.

 We placed half of the new irises ready to plant.

Here you can see the just around four foot of area that we will over the autumn/ winter resurface. At present the design and materials have not been decided on.

 The new Irises are in on this side and just waiting for a topdressing of gravel. So a good days work today but still a lot to do.
Three more borders need to be enlarged and the second half of the circle needs completing.

 We left the Robin to check it all out while we went in for a rest and some dinner!


To be continued..
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