HOSEPIPE BAN AND A LONG DROUGHT

 So the country, in the south , is suffering from almost two months without rain and five heatwaves of continuous days of temperatures above 30 + degrees. Added to that the local water company put on a hosepipe ban, so the garden has not received any water for a few weeks and is showing the costs.

 We moved some of the plants that were in pots to the patio by the house, to make it easier to water them with the waste water.

These plants, on the table, don't need much water so have not been effected.

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Lots of our pots are terracotta which unfortunately are not good in very hot weather as they dry out quicker. So next year we will either place the plants in plastic pots and drop those into the terracotta ones or line the terracotta pots with plastic to help stop the pots from drying out the soil in hot weather.

Even the pots in fairly shaded spots have suffered.

Unfortunately we may lose some lovely plants that have been around for a few years.

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The flower garden is suffering due to no water.

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I'm hoping we can save this , a plant we have had and divided up round the garden over the years.

We put some shading up in this area but the plants are still suffering.

The folly 

This is my thirty plus year old cherry tree ! Trying to make sure it survives as the ground is so dry.

now 

Before

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The field Maple tree is already turning red and will drop it's leaves months early as it tries to survive the lack of water.

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The pink in this trough is pasted saving.

This trough which does not get as much sun is still struggling on.

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We moved what plants in the pots into the shade where we could .

but even in this drought a plant will find a space to grow ! 

Hoping these will survive ! 

But of course the brambles still manage to stay green and grow !

Well they are talking rain ! But since we are in one of the driest counties, it remains to be seen just how mush we will get in the next few days.

ANOTHER SMALL GARDEN JOB.

 When we bought our Gazebo kit, it was just a roof and all side were open. But being me , I could not just leave it as that and so we added a couple of walls on one end with old stained glass to keep it light but sheltered from some of the wind.

However, Paul decided to infill the non stained glass area's with some exterior plywood, but that is now looking a bit the worse for the elements.

You can see from the photos it's not looking that good any more.

 So we have decided to remove the plywood and replace it with the feather boarding.

The longer boards under the windows.

Boarding going up.

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There is still a small section to do further across under the window but it's looking so much better already.

THE GARDEN WORK CONTINUES

 So back in early May Paul made the small brick paved area outside my garden studio. That meant that at the side beneath the studio window there was still an old paved piece of path in need of replacing.

Here you can see a piece of the old paving has the crazy paved step on one corner, so that needed to be broken off without damaging the step.

View from the other end.

The finish of the brick path.

from the other end.

Viewed from a distance showing both sides plus the brick paved front.

A little closer showing both sides to walk along.

The troughs are looking good in their new setting and having been replanted . One plant in the trough on the right is loving it too much and has since been removed to a space were it can spread as much as it likes.

A small job was added because we removed a , what was a beautiful, acer by the woodland pond.

It had lived in a large pot for many years slowly growing bigger and when we did the waterfall with stream, this seemed the ideal place for it to continue to grow even bigger , plus it made a good job of hiding the greenhouse behind.

But alas three years on, one side had died over the really cold spell in the winter and the other side was struggling. The dead half was cut off and it was left to see if it would recover, however we were hit with a very cold late spell in spring followed by an incredible hot spell and it was not looking good.

So we decided to remove it into a pot and place it in a more sheltered place to the side to hopefully give it a chance to recover. But this then left a big space, even after we planted a different plant in its place, leaving a large expanse of the greenhouse still visible ! 

We  repotted the  acer and placed beside the raised bed where it used to live but the space there  still looked, well awful !

We had originally left this place open as a short cut between the back gate and greenhouse and the circle which had a nice covered seat on. But Paul in his usual untidy way had filled the space with bits and pieces , so it couldn't really be used. I decided we'd put another piece of trellis stained black to cover most of the greenhouse but still leave a small opening.

So there is now a long piece of trellis stained black filling most of the space and blending in with the existing trellis.

So now the Acer is standing in front of the new section along with a large Hosta.

So now, although it doesn't quite make up for the lovely Acer that was there, it does look a lot better than just being left with a clear view of half the greenhouse.

So just a couple of more small jobs to do.