After spending some time over the Bank Holiday clearing and tidying the front garden, we have trundled over to spend Sunday in the back garden of N's house.
We reckon it hasn't been touched for at least two years - decent planting but so overgrown ....... mind you we have seen worse.
Hydrangea, Climbing Rose, White Potentilla and Variegated Laurel on this side with a Rhus and Buddlia peeking out at the top! There is also a plant gone to seed that looks like an Iris but we will have to wait until next year to see about that.
Variegated Weigelia, Yellow Potentilla and a Yellow Rose bush, plus an unnamed variety and a Red Weigelia populated this side. The rose had already flowered, it was pruned ready to flower again before the end of the year, and everything else had bare branches trimmed.
We decided the best thing we could do for this clematis was to clear the under growth and 'hang' it up against the fence for the time being. We found Crocosmia Montbretia escaping through the fence from next door as well as another Buddlia and a bush that had been cut back many times.
We chopped, sawed, strimmed, thinned and pruned our way round the garden while N kept us supplied with tea and coffee, even went to the local shop to buy some coffee for me (paid a fortune for a small jar but, I have to admit, I
am worth it!), cos as we all know I work better with coffee.
N also did some baking so when we stopped for t&c we also had a muffin/cake, freshly baked.
We had piled all the cuttings onto the lawn which PJ had strimmed before we started.
I took a chair to cut the green stuff into small enough pieces to be bagged ready for collection but then found it easier to manage to cut and drop into the bag (inside the black bins) while standing up.
We didn't see the camera at first but then she was spotted! This produced the usual response from PJ!
So now we have found the borders we shall try to go back in a couple of weeks and dig it over and tie up roses and clematis properly.
We moved the patio furniture over to this side of the garden which left a rather large empty area............ can't be doing with that so we have decided at least two planted pots will fit nicely on there.
In picture 5, the strawberry plants along the edge can just be seen, but they pots they were in are frost damaged so we will transplant the strawberries into some troughs for the winter. This will not only give a good edge, it means that N will be able to harvest the strawberries fresh and undamaged.
BTW
Did I mention that we also had a roast dinner a la fresco - sitting outside in the sunshine!!! This has been a lovely way to spend Sunday if I do say so and PJ & I both agree on that!
The rain started to drizzle just as we were half way home and hasn't stopped very much since so the garden has been refreshed and some plants watered at long last!!
