WHAT ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY - 2021

If it gets sun, hardy cactus, succulents and grasses. If it's shady, improve the soil then plant ferns, hostas, lilies, Lily of the valley, Pulmonarias?

 

Today's effort - shifted a ton or more of gravel to the side of the bungalow - deliberately stopped working at noon. I've been caught out too many times 'over doing it'. I have one of these 4 wheeled pull along trucks - which speeded things up quite a bit.

More gravel going down tomorrow around the front of the bungalow and topping up the front garden path.

 

Not sure shiney I have just been going through some of the photos in the RHS Encyclopedia of Plants and Flowers for Euonymus and never realised the various types are so different..We had one our 'Pebbles' Bexhill Property and thought beginning with E... as far as I got. it reverts back to solid green so to keep the variegated leaves it has to be heavily pruned yearly..does that sound like a Euonymus?

 

This morning I coppiced one of the hazel stools up at the top of the garden. It wasn’t the next one needing to be done (there’s three, that I coppice in rotation), but I needed to move a loose bit of fencing that the hazel had grown through. The easiest was to cut the stems. Once the fencing was removed, I was also able to cut down the dead trunk of a mountain ash tree that didn’t survive one of our summer droughts.

This afternoon I cut back some of the patio roses in the angle bed, and also did the winter prune on the two established buddleia bushes, taking great care not to stand on all the daffodils and cowslips that are starting to emerge in the ground around them. Not easy when all are growing on a steep bank!!

 

That was a great help to me about your Buddleja Pruning as walking around the mud bath yesterday I could see they looked like they needed a hair cut....I lost a mountain ash as well and know having lived in a property on side of hill how dodgy it can be..How are you Sian in Belguim, certainly keeping busy.. ?

 

Today I’ve been mostly trying to get this like mini pampas grass out of the border.


I thought it would be easy. Oh no for a start had difficulty getting a fork or spade in kept hitting the roots from the large shrubs. Then I had to prune back some of the shrubs because they kept poking me in the face.
After a couple of hour of coaxing an swearing I got it out



I’ve put a bit of shuttering in for now will probably put chippings down behind it. I’ve cut a bit of turf from down the bottom of the garden to repair the grass. I shall put that in place tomorrow as it’s raining now.

 

Your shrub looks like a Eleganus ebbi gilt edge @DianneW or one of the other eleganus . Possible still a euonymus but the leaves look to large .

 

Looks like Carex pendula @Ashleyc spreads like crazy self seeding , it can be difficult to get out I usually have to get the big spade out to remove them.

 

We’re hanging in there, Dianne, though we have some bad days....
...I hate vacuuming - as I’m lifting all of the dog-beds we have around the place, trying not to bury my face in them to smell.... yup, that’s tough...

But we will get through this. And either a puppy-bundle of mischief, or an older, possibly confused, hound will come and help our hearts to heal .

Focusing on drawing is difficult - happily, I don’t have a stack of commission pieces waiting to be done, as I did just before Christmas. Cross-stitch is very therapeutic too.

...and it’s nearly time to plant chillies - the annual cycle of seasons is so comforting!

 

Ashleyc the very first time I removed a Pampas Grass that was huge...it was an experience I would not wish to repeat. Once removed under it was the remains of a Well which Mr. W acquired from a reclaim centre the matching bricks and rebuilt it.. Not sure if I have a photo of it now but if I have will post it up....Never though about Pampas again until we moved here and there was 4 lthe dip pool from the Road...Just removed the last one two weeks ago...Memories we do not wish to remember...Love the plumes on them though..People actually burn the insides to prune them...

 

Thanks @noisette47 and @DianneW for your suggestions. Certainly could land scape the front edge with planting pockets for maybe aubretia. The hillock gets both sun and shade. I would need to put more soil on the top to get a planting depth.
I shall post when I decide where I’m going with it.

 

Yes that sounds like a Euonymus.

 

@DianneW they are a mare to remove. The leaves are really sharp. I had to remove one from this garden as I had 2 young children and I didn’t want them cutting them selves.

 

Haven't done anything in the garden today it's been raining again.