Restoring a garden feature

Ant bites. I am dotted with ant bites. Which is fair enough – I was in their way. But the consequences are rather itchy.

Yesterday was a digging in dirt day. We all have them.  I started the morning in one pile of dirt; and when the heat became intolerable I moved on to the another. So yes, you have lots of brown posts to look forward to.

So let’s get the pretties in first and fast so you don’t turn away.

And the ants were in the second dirt area, so we don’t have to moan about those just yet.

Here are the barn garden rocks.  Finally losing their coating of soil. And before you wonder why here is a lesson in gardening for you.

I had no idea what I was doing. Ten years ago it was all rather daunting.

So I was confronted with this large expanse of rock and weed on my way from the barn towards my potting shed.

A huge feature I could stare at endlessly.  So when I had some time I started playing in the dirt.

This is 2010 – thank goodness for date stamps on digital cameras. I had no idea when I started working this part of the garden.

As you can see there was a huge amount of good soil that had washed down over time. Over the mountain.  Good rich stuff.

So being a well-trained appreciator of the good rich stuff, I kept it.

And sort of turned it into a garden area.

I had ideas of planting up the flat horizontal bit between the rocks. And then gave that up for a path.

A path I rarely ever used.

And you know what happens to paths that are rarely used. Weeds grow. And grow.

I planted my usual irises all along the top of the rocks to try and distract the eye from the eyesore behind.

Love my irises.

And now they are being recycled to other parts of the garden. And I had the task of digging out the weeds (brambles aplenty) and shifting soil.

Ably abetted by the lap one.

He has a positively Pavlovian response to the sight of buckets. He just assumes one will be brimful of fresh water at cat height. So any time there is the rattle of buckets out of the potting shed he tracks me down.

It’s not that far. And of course I oblige. Even at the cost of an aching back. This gardening lark would go a lot faster if I weren’t such a softy.

So here is the work in progress.  I love rocks when they take on some moss and provide a bit of relief between the green.

Alas it’s not the happy discovery I had expected once I started digging. I was hoping for a good solid granite surface I can walk along if need be. But these great buckets of eroded rock are just asking for passing soil and weed growth.

I’ll keep at it. Weather permitting. I really can only get things done before 10am right now. And there is the small matter of where on earth I dump all that soil. It keeps me awake nights. In between scratching at my ant bites.