A drizzly Sunday morning, what better than a gardening update? This week has seen a couple of days when it was neither raining nor cold and windy, so we’ve begun to excavate the raised bed that runs the full width of the garden. At present the garden is distinctly lacking in flower planting potential so it was important to dispense with things that were no longer capable of meaningful life. Three or four large dead shrubs were destined for the chain saw and much as I like winter jasmine, I really can’t have it taking up 30% of my growing space, so that is being drastically reduced. I have been personfully assisted by my partner in crime who has sustained a minor injury during a battle with a large dead bush when chain sawing. Fortunately, he didn’t chain saw himself, so he still has the full complement of fingers. My nose did also have an unfortunate encounter with a springy dead hydrangea branch but no one said gardening was not a hazardous activity, Two trailer loads have departed for the recycling centre and we are about a third of the way along the raised bed, with still the bed down the side, which is even more overgrown, to tackle. I am really cross that my ‘before’ photos didn’t include one that really shows the state of the raised bed but never mind. I’ve included the best of the before pictures below.
There have been more discoveries, including what my RHS app tells me is a quince blossoming away like mad. I am very excited by that. There is honeysuckle, which I do want, climbing all over unidentified definitely dead stuff, which I don’t; untangling the two won’t be easy. There is now space to plant some of the things on my ‘plants I want list’. Sadly, I am not sure that all of the things on the wanted list are going to fit but I am going to do my best. I did purchase half a dozen primulas this week. Two have been planted in a hedgehog (one of the many ornaments inherited from the previous owner – along with the elephant also pictured). The others are in a concrete planter – one of four left behind. I was going to move this to the front garden but it needs someone stronger than me on one end, as it is ridiculously heavy.
After a great deal of measuring, remeasuring and false starts, the plan I was attempting to draw is sort of done, not helped by the lack of right angles in the garden, nor me failing to realise at first that the bungalow is not set parallel to the back fence. At the very least the edges join up now. You can also totally ignore the dimensions in my previous post, where I was clearly so overwhelmed by too much gardening to be able to add up. The plot behind the house is now officially 22 feet deep and 60 feet wide, so twice the size I was claiming – 146 square yards or 120 square metres ish. You do still have to allow for the fact that the conservatory takes up a fair bit of space, compensated for by the weird shaped gap between the garage and the bungalow. Apart from a three foot deep bed long the 60 foot side and down one of the short sides, every last bit is currently paved.
Now I am excited to try to purchase some of the plants on my list to fill the spaces we’ve made. Plenty of fork wielding needed first as the soil is compacted and full of winter jasmine root. A few brave bulbs have been revealed, so I am waiting to see what they are.
The History Interpreter - Janet Few 
Hi Janet, the shrub with pink flowers is Chaenomeles (either speciosa or x superba) and is usually known as a flowering quince. The true quince (Cydonia oblonga) – with perfumed fruit for making quince jelly etc – looks like an apple tree and won’t be in blossom for 6-8 weeks. Hope this helps.
Thanks very much. The blossoms are more orangey in real life than the photo suggests.
Oh God! Better you than me! I like the polyanthus. It’s been dry and my one maroon polyanthus needs watering. Your blossom looks pretty. I’m not sure it’s a quince. When we were kids the family walked to a demolished house on a weekend. There was what Dad hoped was an almond tree. He later came back and dug it out. It turned out to be a nice quince tree, but the blossoms were paler than this. Yours could be an apricot. I used to have a weeping apricot which I killed. Local apricot trees have strong pink flowers like yours.
You’ve got a lovely hill in the distance.
It was a retirement village which demolished the house. The organisation eventually progressively marched and expanded a kilometre down the road towards my parent’s house, until my parents joked that they wouldn’t have to join this village as it would arrive at their doorstep anyway! In the end my dad went to their nursing home section which had a beautiful garden although he didn’t get much time to enjoy it as COVID came in.
I have now had one concreter come and carefully measure up my driveway and an area of concrete paving (most of which I don’t use), in front of my kitchen which h*-6as become very uneven in recent years of high rainfall & intermittent here. I don’t want to trip up on any of it. He will send detailed options of quotes.
Another two concreters didn’t want to come out here, but asked for driveway photos. I guess they are solo operators who sound OK and have good reviews, but don’t want to waste their time on measuring & quoting. From the photos one only gave a ball park quote. Apparently none of the driveways on this estate were properly formed by steel frames.
Last year I stood on a big dry spiny leaf near my car on the way to a northern counties family history meeting. By that night it needed Betadine as it became infected and a wash with soap at the library before the meeting wasn’t enough!
Denise
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The hill is great for protection from wind but it is to the south so also reduces the amount of sun sadly
The hill will bring more rain though!
Yes! There’s been plenty of that
Like hundreds or thousands of others, I enjoy your genealogy columns Thank you also for sharing your move and garden plans. We downsized 18 months ago and still have many boxes in the garage, plus a small garden that is a work in progress! Good luck
Thanks Sue – there will still be genealogy too 🙂