Creating a rock garden

I think we need to see that in a bit more detail.

Isn’t it fab? My problem corner is no more.

Let’s have a little refresher about how ghastly it was before the transformation.

It has taken Nicolas a day, but it was even better than either of us expected. He admitted that he has been dreading my request to fix this problem corner for years.

What you can’t see in this finished picture is huge tarpaulin of plants which piled up as the day progressed.  Out came the euphorbias, the echinops, a philadelphis, three shrub roses, the thymes. And endless, endless brambles.

We had quite a conversation about the lovely mock orange. Does it stay, or does it go?  But in the end I decided that everything had to come out so Nicolas could start with a very clean slate.

Besides, how else was he going to pull out all the wretched brambles which had snaked their way through the entire bed?

My job was transplanting as fast as the plants came out – I can barely remember where I was shoving things: the roses went into the north side of the barn garden, in among the sage and iris.

The echinops went to the shade garden bank, as did the only viable thymes that survived the great landscaping event.

Once that job was done I twinkled round to work on the step garden project. But I kept sneaking back to take pictures and marvel at the transformation.

This whopping boulder went into the first level of the wall. I can’t believe Nicolas even managed to lift it out of the wheelbarrow let alone hunt for it in the garden and bring it to the potager.

I certainly didn’t hear any loud cussing from my side of the house.

There is one curving bed on the same level as the sweeping little bed that skirts the entire top of the potager.

Another bed that hugs the steps: and by golly I hope you will be distracted from the hideous crazy paving steps by the gorgeous granite.

There will be plenty of room for my new plants.

But the very top bed suddenly turned into a rock garden. We made a rather scary discovery that changed the plans mid play.

This giant eight foot wall that divides the potager from the top of the courtyard is a teensy bit fragile in the far corner.

Hundreds of years of piling rubbish and creating a compost heap right here seems to have weakened the wall.  So you gaze down on the rock pile and in a few days time, all being well, you get to see thyme plants. Oh, and mulch.

I must make time in between this rather thrilling landscaping work to do some dull, dull raking of leaves or chipping sticks. No weeds will sully this beautiful patch of potager.

For now.