Planting up a new garden bed

You didn’t expect me to leave all this bare soil hanging about? It’s just the most perfect seed bed for weeds.

No. And I couldn’t resist starting a bit of mad planting up.

I will be doing the proper planting in autumn. Homework required. But I am leaning towards more choisya Aztec Pearl.

One thing and almost the only thing I know that I can transplant right now are iris. And boy did I go mad.

I have a garden glut of iris. Thank goodness. And they need dividing. Just look at this clump. Six plants here once you have teased the roots apart. They just love my free draining soil.

So with buckets and secateurs and the mighty fork I just loped about the garden looting.

Last year I put more pressure on the iris by transplanting them without cutting back the strappy leaves.

It didn’t seem to do the guesthouse garden bank any harm. But I have decided to be more attentive this time.

So it looks awful. But here are 155 iris plants. All in a row. 61 on the oak bank directly in front of the eragrostis curvula grasses. 60 on the long top row. And 34 crammed into the lower terrace on the temporary bank. (Do we want to start a sweepstake to calculate how long ‘temporary’ becomes?)

Looking shorn and stumpy. But it will help the roots to get established and put less pressure on the growth next year.

And then came the raid to the depot for the mulch. And there was no stopping me.

So. so much nicer than weedy sloping bland. It is now a weed-free terraced site full of promise and hopefully, soon to be planted up.