Interim ball count

It's five months since I started this blog. Time for a count of all the balls we have found while clearing and creating the garden ...

6 footballs
22 tennis balls
8 golf balls
3 ping pong balls
4 miscellaneous balls

and 2 doggie chew toys that were too disgusting to keep - even as a symbol of how far we have come.

I wonder if that is it?

Two dead trees gone

The tree surgeon removed two dead trees today, opening up the view of next door's rather overgrown garden. The logs, once split, should see us nicely through the winter. 

Before

After

Less than a year to go now!

And it's all looking quite hopeful. The lupins and phlox have arrived to join the party and were positively glowing in the late evening.

Should we have gone for a lower-maintenance garden?

A friend has asked if we have finished the garden, given that there have been no posts for a while. No, definitely not finished! But we have been rather swamped by the on-going maintenance - the watering, weeding, pruning and mowing. Not to mention disposing of the detritus that the last three generate. And  weeding is a bit like hoovering - looks nice when it's done but don't really need to see it happening.

However, things continue to grow. Like the campsis (Chinese trumpet vine) by the front door. From bare sticks in May, it is now up to the gutters and threatening to cover several of the upstairs windows. Lovely to look at though.

And the answer to the question is no! It may be a lot of work, but I love doing it. And who wants a garden that looks exactly the same week after week?

Add 5 tons of pea shingle and spread evenly

A new car park!

The before picture

Take 25 tons of scalpings

Scalpings for the car parking area were delivered today. This time they were lifted over the hedge using a grabber - quite a sight!

Now just need to use that neat little digger to spread them around.

Adding another dimension

Progress on the garden has been a little slow recently. Blame an emigrating brother-in-law, Parish Council stands at local fetes and Wimbledon.  

However we have found time to add some metal arches to the parterre bed and today I planted passion flower, jasmine and climbing roses.