Blog : My new Purple Border

Oh well, I've plenty of other wood (though I do have a fire guard) I'll maybe use it outside on the patio in autumn ...

I've put on hold the flower/plant choice thing for the moment, till I have a blank border ready to go, and I can start putting the plants I've got in place and seeing what spaces I'll have left etc ... I started getting a bit lost with trying to do it on paper ... I'm more of a "visualise it in place" type of person

 

The stump is staying for now, if I change my mind I can always pop a fence panel out and remove it later. However today I did have to chainsaw out two L shape chunks out of the roots to the rear, so that the new gravel board will sit level with the rest ...



Sudden loss of privacy with my neighbours !



Digging out around the concrete posts that are coming out is a bit of a pain.



New (very thick and heavy !!) fence panels, but because it's rained solid for a week now, they are too damp to stain (even though they've been under a tarp). Managed to stain the left/right/bottom edges, as a) cant get to those once in place and b) it'll make staining them in situ easier (wont get stain on the concrete posts).

Note the improvised use of the old panels to keep the worst of the wet off the new panels

 

Oh ... and it's gettin' yellow out there !

 

Lookin' good Len

I am v jealous of your view.

I have those type of panels - thick and heavy. They've been in for seven years and look as good as new.

 

Len , how good you are with chisels?
can make a nice totem out of your tree.

ps I`ve done my conifer last October and still the soil did recover yet , before you plant anything check for soil boost or replece the lot.

 

Hehe, now I DID think of that but I dont know if my skills and patience (and time !!) are up to it. I might drill it though, for insects.

The soil is PANTS, really dry and no goodness. I've a load of compost and partially rotted manure to go in (plus probably other goodness, whatever I can find or think to add). Wish the manure was more rotted, but it will have to finish its rotting in the ground. I plan to double dig the lot.

 

I`ve cutted mine in October , because I was thinking about the soil and it worked , I`ve left lots of kitchen waist and have attracted lots of worms , the soil is not dry as it was , plus I`m creating rised bed all around .....found lots of bricks around the roots and I`m using them for featuring.
what about an easter head?

 

!!! LIVE ACTION FENCE ERECTING !!!

Does life get any more exciting than this ? :WINK1:

 

And done. In between showers, and just before torrential rain (got soaked clearing up). The grass (being soggy to start off with) took a hammering, but I'll coax that back (have raked it upright for now, need to pick out 1,000,000 stones when it's dry).

All I have to do now is wait till it's dry enough to be able to finish the staining !!!

 

wow the case of ........the neighbor's grass is always greener

 

Saturday

So the concrete foundations were a pig to get out, but they're all out now.



My lovely neighbour starting staining their side of the fence without putting down any kind of protection ... leading to two ruined concrete gravel boards (they hadn't even been down a week !!). Nothing would bring off the stain, so I've had to get two new ones. Sigh.



... but I covered the rest with plastic (under the panels) and cracked on with staining my side. I'll remove that when he's finished his side.



And it's starting to look quite good now ...




Sunday

This day was mainly devoted to finishing off staining the two panels at the end of the garden by the decking, then improving the solid clay, heavily impacted soil.

Dug it over from end to end three times yesterday, first time to just start to loosen it up, then to mix in five bags of compost, three bags of sharp sand, and about 1m sq of our horse's finest export (and thus emptying my compost heap). Also removed three very large buckets of stones and countless random roots.



I made the lawn a bit smaller up by this end of the garden, and thus the border bigger. Temptation is to make the border even bigger, but I'll do that in future years ... the border will look a bit "thin" for a couple of years (till things start to fill out) as it is.

Lawn is starting to improve now, but it's taken a right battering what with being trampled all over by numerous muddy boots and being under a lot of water recently. Give it a month it'll be fine.



The soil is looking GREAT, very happy with that compared to what it was like before (and the rest of the garden). Not sure whether to work more compost into it or not, or just call it a day at that, bearing in mind I'll be spot improving soil when planting out.

Now the fun bit can begin ! Probably wont have chance today (Monday) but next weekend (weather allowing) I can start positioning plants and planting out .... yipeeeeeee !!!

p.s. I think I'm going to get rid of the elm ... someone's spent a lot of time training it into that shape, but it's right in front of the window (blocking the view to the rest of the border from the living room), it doesnt flower, and all it does is drop seeds everywhere in autumn. Shame I cant move it elsewhere, but I dont like it where it is.

p.p.s. I'm going to move 1/2 the Euphorbia elsewhere in the border as part of the planting out, and tidy up round it. Plan to have two lozenge shaped clusters of it.

That's two days of my bank holiday JUST spent on the garden, better get on with something else really, lol !!!