Being good

Nothing beats the imminent arrival of your two favourite gardening friends to put in a burst of work. I powered up and surged out this morning just after 730am.   My list was long, my mind determined.

I finished off hauling all the weeds from the pool bank first up. Best done in the cool weather.   And then grabbed the lawn mower and had a mini mow of the main lawn and the east garden.

That done, I located Artur – lying deep in the compost box in the potting shed – he hates the lawn mower. I gave him a pat and assured him it was silence from now on. And then set to in the shade garden.

I am trying to work out whether these festucas will stay.   They were flattened when we added all the gravel to the paths. And flat festucas are not a winning look.

So I decided to cut them all back and see what happens.

They look a bit shocked. Very short, back and sides.   But they grow like the weeds that they are. So hopefully I can see what form they take this late summer and autumn.

I haven’t done the entire bank, there are about ten feet to go, but it is the tapering narrow end. But it was in blazing sunshine and I was starving.

One job I finally got round to after walking past these rocks for months: I weeded them.

They have brambles and wild clematis growing over them in profusion each year.   Usually I don’t bother with them. But some of the brambles were snaking into the new step garden area, so I thought it best to cut them all back.

Once I’ve finished lunch I’m going to take my hefty secateurs and prune the errant almond tree that grows right out of the rocks.   And have a go at the olive tree to its left.