Preparing the terrace bank for spring

Now I remember. A few days ago I knew there was a large part of the garden that still needed weeding. And walking up to the potting shed the answer was glaring at me – the sloping terrace bank to the right of the shed.

My problem corner.

It always feels larger when it is covered in weeds. And perennials that need cutting back.

I set to just cutting back the centranthus rubra (valerian), gaura and verbena bonariensis stalks.  That improved things nicely.

Were I really keen, I would split these valerians to make more plants. But I am not that enamoured with the colour of the plants: pink, not deep enough to be red, a bit bland.  And they never do that well in a vase as they don’t make friends with other foliage. They flop. Well, they work if you match them with quite dark colours.

Here are some pictures of them in a June bouquet from last year.  They look better than I remembered.

We are a long way off colour in the depths of March. I have just cut back last year’s growth and weeded furiously around the plants.

And then I ended up spending the whole day here. And I’m still not done.  Having a giant oak tree just above the garden beds on the right hand side means you have to grub about under the fallen leaves just to find the soil.  And when you do you come up with handfuls and then buckets full of acorns.  Many of them sprouting. You need to really give them a good tug to get them out of the ground.

I admire their tenacity. But as they are poisonous to most critters, the crop of unwanted nuts stays all winter.

I cleared the beds eventually.  I left most of the leaves in place: they will serve as a mulch until I can get some proper stuff down.  It’s low on the priority list as I have to get the productive parts of the garden sorted first.

The only little plants you can see poking out of the weeds are some santolina primrose gems I planted out last year. From cuttings. Thank goodness for santolinas.  And it gave me an idea to remove the little plants I have been nurturing in the potting shed and get them into the ground here.

It might be a bit shady for them under this part of the terrace bank.  There is a chestnut tree just above them.  So that’s a double canopy of oak tree and chestnut.

But shade is a curious thing.  Especially high in a mountainous area facing south this far south in France.  Gardens get light and sun even though most people would consider this a shady garden area.   I haven’t been thwarted yet with sun loving plants.  The agastache particularly like these beds.

And I have an excess of santolinas, and euphorbias. So in they go.

There is a peony here which is not happy. Each year I mean to move it. But it is creeping into growth, so I have missed it again.  That is the hardest part about weeding here – you have to be so careful where you kneel.

I managed to clear the first bed on the left hand side of this garden. But I ran out of time.  More tomorrow methinks.