Brambles and bunyips

strimmed terracesI swear there were bunyips in there.  Late this afternoon I decided on a spot of strimming.  I zipped up along the top of the quince bank and above the guest house.  That was easy.  Well, ish.  It is a steep slope, but I’m quite good at standing on a tricky bit of land with a whirring blade.

But down on the lower terraces it was another matter. Brambles. I can expect to find brambles on the stone walls creeping onto the terrace proper.  But the lowest terraces closest to the vineyard where a disaster.  Well established brambles all through the ground. strimmed quince bank

I am ashamed. I get the feeling I didn’t strim enough last year.  How else to explain this invasion?  I had it tamed in no time. And that’s the tyranny of strimming. It may be heavy work, but it’s so quick to tame a wilderness.

I must try and get on top of it this spring as well.   And I do have two more of the smaller terraces still to do.  But I have tamed acres so I ought to be pleased. mulched lavenders

Earlier I did my usual spot of chipping.  I have a lovely forest of sticks to get through.  This time I managed to finish the last bit of the walnut bed I had missed, plus a spot of gap filling in the barn garden.  And then, oh joy, the first part of the lavender bed is mulched.

I have piles and piles of sticks to go, but it’s progress.  And the new blades chip so wonderfully.

Looking at my list I also remembered to move some perovskia shrubs that have to leave the barn garden (too tall) and join the rest of the perovskia in the plum bank.  And I moved the – pause while I look up how to spell it – hakonechloa grass from under the walnut tree and down to the moister environs of the duck pond garden.

There is an underground spring there and I was thinking that it might be a good place to plant this grass that really does prefer wetter ground that a dry patch of earth underneath a walnut tree.

pleased to be nappingIt will be no surprise to learn that Artur has barely moved from his wonderful net nest.  The potting shed is at that perfect sunny temperature where even I would have happily nested inside.

Tomorrow I’m off to the south – to St Pierre le Dechausselat for the night to see Andrew’s garden progress and spend some quality time with him. I usually drive down and back in a day which is tiring as it’s a four hour round trip.  So tomorrow ought to be much more leisurely.