RE-USING THE LAST OF THE OLD SLEEPERS

Today I had a chat with Paul about the end raised bed, which is slowly month by month falling apart as the old wood rots.

I suggested that we could use what was left of the old sleepers that made up the previous pond that was on the patio by the house. We had a look at what we still had unused and found two of the long lengths and three smaller pieces.

After a measure up, we knew it would work. Some of the sleepers had rot at the end of them but it worked out that we could cut the worse of the rot off and just had in the smallest piece left to complete the top section.

We have placed them onto small concrete blocks, so help keep the bottom sleepers from rotting.

At the moment looking like a mishmash but once they are in and secure with a capping, we will give them a couple of coats of black stain/preservative which will pull them all together.

Rufus giving it an quick inspection before we can go in for a cuppa.

So I am really pleased with this, using up the sleepers that have just been tucked out the way and starting the repair of the raised bed. Now to work out just what we need to finish the job.

STILL WORKING ON THE GARDEN

 

All the flower beds have now been increased, so naturally we wandered off to do a little change around.

While sitting in the flower garden, we decided to return the four blue pots, which were originally either side of the two covered benches, and that we put in the pond garden, back to their original place.

We lost our two bay trees unfortunately over the cold winter, so we decided that the two big terracotta pots the trees were in could be put with side of the lychgate in the pond garden.

So we went off to the garden centre and unplanned, as usual, we returned with four Azalea's! Two of which we have put in the big terracotta pots.

Two are evergreen, so the pots will have some colour through the winter.

So a lovely splash of colour in May.

The other two are non evergreen and are now potted up and standing the other side of the lych gate.

a lovely pink

and a white

so now back to sorting out the flower garden.

SLOWLY COMING TOGETHER PLUS PLENTY OF COLOUR

 The flower garden now has two lengthened beds.

this is the first one and Paul's now done the one diagonally opposite.

This bed was easiest to do next due to not being so full of weeds and grass. It has quite a few groundcover plants under the shrubs at the back.

The tree peony in the other beds is having it's best year so far, with lots of lovely blooms.

A close up

We put in this tangerine Ranunculus to link to the Geum in the opposite flower bed.

a closer view

Some ground cover along the raised side back border.

Very pretty blue flowers similar to forget me knots.

The stone trough below the folly window has been replanted with the hope these we actually not vanish like all the previous plants we've tried here.

inside the folly

Pleased with how this area is working.

The Rhubarb is coming along nicely in it's pot.

We planted up the wall and hanging baskets.

We lost a few large shrubs this winter but other plants appear to have enjoyed the cold spell followed by all the rain and are doing well.

It was the King's coronation on Saturday, so we had a small celebration lunch with our close friends on Sunday, which turned out to be the best day weather wise for the long weekend.

So it's carrying on with the change in the flower garden this week, weather permitting.

WORK WORK WORK

 Well the pond is all finished and bolted back together, with a new liner and a new plant added.

Hopefully the issue is now resolved and the pond will enjoy many years of service.

We moved this little birdbath from round the back to the front garden, near to where we have a bird feeding station. It looks really good in it's new home.

We also moved our other birdbath, to near the back garden bird feeders after removing a shrub that died due to the harsh winter, which enabled us to clear a section of that flower bed and have a change. We also planted a crab apple tree here, to celebrate the king's coronation this coming weekend.

We landed up with a tree for the king, because we wanted a tree for the late Queen Elizabeth's 70th jubilee which we were meant to plant last year but being us, didn't get round to it. So this tree, for the late queen, is a flowering cherry and placed very near my studio, so that when it's bigger it will help give some much needed shade to the building, at least that's the hope.

The tubs of tulips have looked lovely by the lychgate but we will need to find some proper pots for them for next year.

The left hand side is the raised beds, which need to have their edging, which has now rotted away, replaced, so another job needing doing.

Along with the flower garden, which needs a circular base put in then covered with paving or some other finish and also the surrounding beds made slightly bigger and planted up.

Paul's made a start by removing the grass and lengthening the flower bed. We need to do all four, so we can tweak it to remake the circle he cut round last year and the decide how we continue, either a raised circle or digging down to make a level way across.

This and the back raised bed wooden edge replacement are the biggest jobs that we need to get done this year, in order to make life easier for us as we get older.

So a long road of work ahead to get all this looking back to a nice tidy garden.