Broom sweeping

Or to be more accurate, broom eradication.   This is the Spanish broom plant (genet) that grows all over our mountain top.   It’s a pest, like many plants that grow unchecked.

I noticed there was quite a lot of it growing on my carefully tended lower terraces when I went down to inspect the tree felling programme this week.

So as I had a bit of time on my hands, out came the mower and off I went.

The pictures are deceptive as you can’t see how thick or how tall this plant is.   But in the technical parlance of lawn mower speak, it took level 5 for the first mow and then another pass with level 2.

Deeply satisfying.

Especially as I now had enough mulch to hide the black weedproof fabric that I put on the slope of the plum bank.   Now you see it now you don’t.

Naturally, if we have a heavy rain fall (hah!) most of the mulch will ooze its way to the base of the terrace where the thyme plants are.   But it’s just an aesthetic thing really.   I’ll just have to make a habit of replacing the parts that fall away.

I’m quite amazed how happy the rosemary and perovskia plants are doing on this bank. And the thymes.

They don’t play an obvious part of my watering routine as the bank is rather out of sight.

I don’t think I’ve watered more than three times this summer.   Some of the thyme plants were looking a bit parched, but they have bounced back well.

And I’m thrilled that all the brambles and vile weeds that used to plague this bank are not coming through the mulch.

I can call it a victory. Some part of the garden with a successful design, execution and maintenance.