Garden revamp – more evictions

I spent the afternoon pottering around the courtyard moving this and evicting that – the main eviction was yet another euphorbia – this one the common variety. Pictured is an outdoor cyclamen – a single corm this fills the entire pot!  yet to decide where to put that one.

 

 

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Garden revamp

As it was a nice bright day I spent a lot of it in the garden.  Repotting plants that I brought with me in plastic pots into ceramic containers. And then playing musical plants – shifting things around before they start putting on too much spring growth.

Two olive trees,  a pot of blue agapanthus and (not shown) a pot of  Bela Lugosi Daylilies.

also disposed of a large quantity of Euphorbias and Montbretia and  resited a large Anemones in their place.

Moved two Hydrangeas from the front garden, a Red valerian that I had in a pot and a  Broom plant that was in the rear to the small border at the side of the house.

And re planted the Acer that was hiding under that Spotted Laurel to the front.

 

 

Still to decide what to do with another Acer in the back garden and two Pieris in the front garden.  That is a decision for another day.

I also have a Fig and a Ginko to be repotted. Plus some Azaleas in the garden that would be better off in containers in ericaceous compost.

We have a selection of lumps of glass scattered about – gathered them all togther and not sure what to do with them.

Though I wore gloves when digging them up I seem to have a  slight ‘burn’ from the Euphorbia sap on my left hand.  Must have brushed up against them after I took my gloves off. That being the case the other clump of same plant will meet their doom quite soon!

Today in the Garden

Today was all about cutting back ivy – which had smothered 5 panels of the rhs fence.

This is an ancient ivy – or to be more precise ivys because there are at least five different varieties there. The largest leaf variety is covered on flowers and fruits so I am loathe to cut too much back because they are a source of winter food for insects and when the sun is out the flowers are ashimmer with bees and hoverflies (and even the occasional late butterfly).

Likewise the fruits provide winter feed for the birds.

But…

I also feared that it was going to pull the fence down. Having  chopped it back from the end two of the spread I realise that the ivy may be the only thing holding the centre three sections up! So have limited myself to trimming the long non-flowering strands for now.

Also in tidying the edges beneath found that the ivy roots were holding the grey-water drain cover tightly in place. Much swearing and hacking with secateurs has freed it up and pushed the border edge back by almost a foot.

Bin is brimming and I am exhausted but a good job done.

I will start taking pics of my own at some point 🙂

 

New Garden

One of the reasons for moving house was that the garden at Oldhaven was to big (and steep) for me to manage.

This is my 6th garden and quite small – a fraction of the size I had previously, with a small frontage and a courtyard garden to the rear. 

A small garden will be easier to maintain but can also present a challenge when every plant and shrub needs to earn its keep.

Green Figs

This recipe uses up all of those unripe green figs that are still clinging on to your tree as autumn approaches.

Across most cooler climates is wise to remove any unripened  figs larger than a pea from your tree. This is because when larger fruit are left to overwinter not only will they seldom (if ever) ripen but they are also liable to deter new fruits from forming for the following season.

Mollusc Might

I weeded the raised veg beds today and found that the molluscs have eaten every single lettuce and most of the carrot seedlings.

Chickweed they ignore, as they do speedwell and jack-by-the-hedge and every other weed – just went straight for the good stuff…

B*stards!!!

Much as I hate to relent I feel the purchase of several buckets of slug pellets coming on.

 

(picture pre raised beds)

Waspish Words

A couple of years ago we had a wasp nest in an air brick right under the front window. Now much as I hate destroying things for the hell of it there were just too many stinging-critters in the house so we had to destroy the nest. It took several attempts – they are tenacious little buggers!