There’s been quite a bit going on garden wise. First was the plan to cover the unsightly tarmac in front of the back gate by the new water butt, which leads to the ‘not actually a garage anymore’. This involved creating a barrier to stop any chippings escaping through the back gate. That was the easy bit. Next, to order chippings. The received wisdom was that online would be cheapest. After some research, I discovered a website that indicated how much stone you needed to cover an area of particular dimensions. I measured carefully, more than once. This was not as easy as it sounds as the area to be covered is wedge-shaped. I was reasonably good at geometry and I over estimated, which led to a figure of 362kg. I ordered 450kg, confident that that would be plenty. There’s a huge but coming; I did not order from the same website as the one that provided this figure, as I preferred a slightly different stone.
Next, the non-delivery of said chippings on the day they were due. In the end they were delayed long enough to arrive on a day when I was back from my weekend away. Unfortunately though, it was my birthday and a day out was planned. My kind neighbour signed for the large bag of chippings and all seemed well. Next some shovelling and raking, which actually didn’t take as long as I thought it would. In theory, there should have been chippings to spare but no. I can only presume that the chippings on the measuring website were a different weight to those I actually ordered. There were not enough. We raked them a little thinner, still not enough.
A trip round local builders’ merchants armed with a sample of the stones ensued. Absolutely nothing that looked vaguely similar. I could have ordered more from the original supplier but the delivery charge was punishing and supposing I still didn’t have enough? I wondered if I could put a few raised beds on the area to eke out the stone, as they would not need stones underneath. I decided to think about the best course of action. We then realised that walking on said stones coated the soles of our shoes with a chalky residue. Clearly the adults who were likely to be walking in my garden are perfectly capable of efficiently using a door mat, the three imminently arriving small people, not so much and one of those small people sleeps in the ‘not a garage’.
From the outset, I had considered putting stepping stones on the chippings, this now seemed like an essential requirement. Ideally, I wanted to match the rope-like stones in another part of the garden. I looked online for a nearby supplier. Good news, a large retailer near me sold what I wanted but only if I purchased twenty-five stepping stones at about £350, not an option. The small people were due the next day, it was already close to closing time. Cue a hasty trip to a nearby, normally expensive, garden centre, where lo and behold, I could get the nine stepping stones that I required for a much more reasonable figure and as a bonus, the postman had delivered a 25% off voucher for said garden centre, which I had not only saved but found and remembered to take with me. Nine stepping stones purchased for a seventh of the price of twenty-five. Next to lay the stepping stones. Lining them up was not without incident but moving chippings from underneath the stepping stones meant the chippings covered the whole area – result.
Then there was the birthday visit to a large and economical garden centre to splash quite a lot of cash. The haul included a wisteria, a standard azalea, that I regretted not buying last year, a lupin, a replacement alchemilla mollis, the previous one having drowned as I accidentally planted it in a pot with no drainage hole, a lemon tree, an evergreen clematis, which I hope will grow to cover the tiny gap, which is the only place where the garden is overlooked, some bedding plants and probably more that I am not going to admit to.
Spring has certainly sprung and the recent sunny weather has set many things in bloom. Bluebells are showing colour, the wall flowers are glorious and the clematis are in bloom. There is plenty of blossom on my two apple trees, the olive and the pear are looking healthy. I also have two new trees in pots. These started as bare twigs about nine inches long and were free from the Woodland Trust. To be honest, I didn’t hold out much hope of them ever becoming tree like, especially as the resident magpie was eyeing them up for their nest but they too are shooting. One is a dogwood and I’ve forgotten what the other one is going to be so watch this space.
The History Interpreter - Janet Few 