Mulching the dry garden

I’m having doubts about the name Dry Garden. I don’t know but it sounds so… dry.

It’s actually zinging with plants right now. And settling in.  I had dug it in a drought a few years back and I wish I had a handy bulldozer to sculpt the site a bit. It’s flat.  But I’m cramming the plants in and things are doing well.

Such a shame it’s so tricky to photograph. There are things I do for this blog, but getting up pre-dawn and lying prone to get just the right shot (avoiding the car that is often parked in the way, or the satellite dish….) never seems to spring to mind.

I even tried photographing it from the road above. Sort of sneaking up on the garden in the hope it will be revealed in new and exciting ways.

Yes. Well, I think we can move on from that rather unfortunate shot.

Back down on the flat level here are the snaps of the mulch work.

And as the drought has finally broken here this week, I am relieved to have shovelled mulch galore about the place just in time. Readers, we had an inch. An inch of rain. Hurrah. And possibly more to come.

So rain dances along the path now beautifully and thickly covered with mulch it is.  I’m paying for it, mind you.  The municipal pile has gone down to the dregs. And they are dusty parched bits of chipped pine and bark.  Fit only for paths.

And the last trip I had to cover my face with a scarf as the dust that I churn seems to give me the most tremendous sore throat and streaming eyes. It’s like a dose of a summer cold and hayfever all at the same time.

Thrilling.

But we suffer for our gardens.

So mustn’t grumble. It will look fetching for at least a week. And then the perennials lurking on the path will push through and I will get cross.

At least I can spend time admiring the new season growth.  These stachys sulked for a year. But at last they are giving some height where I need it most. Under the dry as dust pine tree.

And the euphorbia rigida are just gorgeous. Here’s hoping they self-seed like mad.