Although I said that there would be no more updates until spring, I thought I would just mention the recent storm, which reached over 80mph in my little corner of the country. Fortunately, the garden itself is relatively sheltered so the damage could definitely have been worse. The smallest pots of heather in the front garden blew over and in a couple of cases came out of their pots. The chrysanthemums ended up on their sides but managed to retain their earth and a few plants look a little wind blown. The main casualty was the back fence, which has a distinct list to starboard. In order to prevent it leaning further ,or giving up entirely and lying down (and who could blame it) whilst it awaits proper repair, the fence mender of my acquaintance decided an interim remedy was required- at least I hope it is interim. I kid you not, he has tied it to the pond. He probably has memories of just how heavy said pond was to manoeuvre into position.

Although I don’t really like buying plants by mail order, as I like to see what I am buying, there were three things on my must have list that I hadn’t seen all year in any of my garden centre forays. I decided that now was the time to treat myself, so somewhere in the garden is a guelder rose, a windflower and a mock orange. They don’t look much at the moment but I am hoping that they will survive.

It is obviously not a great time of year for things to be in flower but one or two things are braving the December chills, Randomly this includes a honeysuckle, which is in part of the garden that gets zero sun at this time of year. Mind you Storm Darragh kindly deposited a fine layer of sand all over my windows, so it is tricky to see what is going on in the garden, unless I venture outside.

What has been going on in the garden over the past few weeks? you ask. Well, you probably don’t but I will tell you anyway. The most noticeable difference is that we’ve cleared the bed down one side of the garden. This isn’t quite the undertaking you might think as my garden is tiny and much wider than it is deep. The whole of this side was occupied by a very dead bush. It did have the advantages of being a home for birds and the support for some pretty honeysuckle-like climber but it really did have to go. We unearthed a ridiculously leggy hydrangea that had been struggling to reach the light. The bonus is that the soil is good, or it is now we have removed a ton of dead bush roots. What remains is a camellia, that was severely pruned to make room for the shed, a random hollyhock, which seems to be in a very odd place as that bed gets virtually no sun. Mind you, said hollyhock is only about nine inches high and has no flowers. We’ve left the remnants of the honeysuckle-like thing and another climber that may revive and so far planted a Michaelmas Daisy and some white daisies that were donated following their role as a wedding decoration in a local church. The fence behind the bed has been painted to match the one on the other side.

The new water butt is on hold as I may be going to do something with the tarmac in that bit of the garden and don’t want to move a full water butt. The pond now holds water but I haven’t had the chance to acquire any plants for it yet so the water is pretty murky. Despite this, there is evidence of insect life. The vegetable harvest has been unspectacular, although it is always fun to grow them. The pea harvest was minimal, the strawberries even more so, with most of the strawberries being smaller than the peas. The bean succumbed to black fly but I still have garlic and potatoes to harvest. There is a solitary apple on the newly planted apple tree and excitingly, some mini olives on the olive tree. No one actually likes olives but that isn’t the point.

We bumped up the electricity and water bills by power washing the patio. It does look good but there is little grout (if grout is the right term) between the slabs, so plenty of weed growing opportunity. I don’t want to fill the gaps as they prevent the garden turning into a swimming pool when we get heavy rain.

I have been a bit ruthless and taken out the cape fuchsia, which was spreading all over the place. I have shoved some in a pot but that’s its lot. Some of the garden is looking a little tatty as things start to die back, I am leaving some things to go to seed deliberately. I am a bit worried by the white lilac, which looks less than healthy. I have also realised that I have put some things in in the wrong places. I have a massive rudbeckia growing in the planter, which I might attempt to move when it has finished flowering.

I have finally hung the pretty solar lights that were a Christmas present. Now all I have to do is stay up late enough to admire the effect. Mind you, with the nights drawing in (sorry to point that out) it will soon cease to be a problem. Convolvulus wars continue. How can something grow so fast? Hopefully off to buy plants for the newly cleared bed this week. I must practice practicing restraint – hmmm.

It has been a while since the last garden update; we’ve been busy with other things. Nonetheless progress has been made. The fence is now a sort of sagey bluey green, the summer house has had three coats of the same paint. This took a while between showery days. I decided I’d put masking tape on the windows. Goodness knows why as previous painter of the shed liberally applied brown preservative to windows and walls alike. By the time the third coat was on, the sun had baked the masking tape to the windows, so now I have to try to scrape it all off. The bird table also has touches of blue. The raised bed is built and planted and I finally have a base for the sundial that I have had for ages.

My helicopter chair and umbrella are in situ ready for when I might possibly have time to sit in the garden. The grandchildren also, with permission, rehomed three gnomes to the local gnome reserve but I am actually getting quite fond of some of the random inherited ornaments. The war on winter jasmine has now become an ongoing and not very successful war on convolvulus. How does the wretched stuff grow six inches in one day?

Morrisons just had some patio trees on sale. Sadly by the time I returned with a larger vehicle they had fewer, so less choice but I acquired a pear, an apple and an olive, all of which, I hope, will grow in pots. I also added a couple more clematis and another companula to the basket. Some garlic, chives and a strawberry plant are other recent acquisitions. I have moved the poor wind-blown geraniums back to the relative shelter of the back garden. The beans and peas are growing and nasturtium, marigold and wild flower seeds have germinated. The hanging baskets are starting to flower, not very fast as I’ve had to put them in a position where they get zero sun, still at least they won’t dry out. I really have pretty much run out of room now, although there are still at least five ‘must have’s that at present I haven’t.

Next jobs on the list, apart from window scraping, are moving the shed (again) so we can put a solid base underneath and repairing the summerhouse roof. The felt is purchased and now ‘all’ that is needed is free days when it is also dry.

This is mostly the tale of two sheds but first, the other gardening news. I’ve been working on keeping the flowerbed, that has been cleared so far, in a reasonable state and I am pleased to relate that the bird table is back in situ and can be seen from my settee. The snag is that, now that it is sometimes a little warmer, I am opening the door between the living room and conservatory, which creates a different ‘view of the bird table’ obstruction. Not sure if it is best to move the bird table again or the settee. On the subject of birds, there’s been a great deal of interest in the two, very much past their best, birdboxes. I am optimistic that the great tits will be nesting in one.

I foolishly decided that it was warm enough to put the geraniums out. I don’t think I was wrong in terms of temperature. I planted them in extremely heavy concrete planters that came with the garden. Then I decided they’d prefer to be in the front garden where it is sunnier. We just about managed to move two out of three planters to the front. This was accomplished by my partner in crime lifting the ridiculously heavy planter and me running back and forth with the two concrete planter supports that each trough required, which had to be done one at a time because of their weight. This, dear friends, was not a good plan. Sunny the front garden may be but it is also exposed to easterly gales, of which we have many. Not sure about the survival rate for said geraniums and we can’t face moving the troughs back at the moment. I may be replanting any geraniums that have made it thus far.

There seems to be little professional interest in shed moving or grass reinstating and I am having second thoughts about the latter. It is very damp and shady and I fear any grass would quickly be reduced to moss or mud, so that idea is on hold. As I’ve mentioned before, removal of the wooden shed was a priority because the rain running off the roof ended up on the wall of the bungalow (for those in Australia, that’s a single story, brick-built house, not a glorified cabin). You’d think shed removal could be quite fun wouldn’t you? A few bashes with a sledge hammer and Bob’s your uncle. No such luck, my trusty assistant decided that one can never have too many sheds (note to reader – he has too many sheds) and decided that he wanted to preserve it for re-erection in his own garden. Taking it apart in a state that would potentially allow re-erection was not so simple. It seemed to have been very firmly erected, with every screw tightened with an electric screwdriver. Still, after much effort, there was a not shed where the wooden shed used to be.

At this point, in the absence of the ‘getting a man in’ option, moving the six foot by five foot six ‘tin’ (aka plastic) shed was going to wait until we had help in the form of muscles that hadn’t seen the best part of seven decades’ use (me), or eight decades in the case of the trusty assistant. We both claim that it was the other person who suggested this but somehow the sun came out this morning and it was decided (I am sure it wasn’t me) that, with the aim of some sturdy bits of tubing, we could move the ‘tin’ shed. I was particularly keen to see what was behind it and had envisaged moving it three or four feet forward so that I could investigate. Before I could draw breath, the plan changed to moving it fifty feet and turning it round through 180 degrees, so that it was almost where it needs to end up. It can’t yet be exactly where it needs to end up because it is a different shape to the now ex wooden shed and some work has to be done on a base.

Operation move the shed began. The first thirty feet were on paving slabs. Not too tricky once we’d moved random plant pots, the bird bath and various inherited garden ornaments out of the way. The shed was tipped back slightly, I risked life and fingers shoving a pipe under it, then we rolled it forward on said pipe, inserting an additional pipe when necessary. ‘This is how they built Stonehenge’, I remarked. We even managed the 180 degree swivel without too much of a problem. Then we reached the gravel. This was more complicated. As we pushed the shed forward it basically ploughed gravel up before it. It required a double tipping back whilst shoving manoeuvre. The garden now looks a total mess up one end but significantly larger at the other. The tin shed is now abandoned at the right end of the garden, waiting to go a further ten foot back and fifteen feet to the right behind the conservatory, when the base is ready. It is also on top of the hole for the rotary washing line. As I line-dry all my washing, it can’t stay there for long.

Whilst on the subject of sheds, there is also the rather battered summerhouse. I am debating whether repairing it, to give is a few years’ additional life, is worthwhile, or if I would be better going for a replacement straight away. I’ve been investigating possibilities. It seems that the same structure varies wildly in price depending where you purchase it; I some cases it can be ten times as much from one source compared to another. Some offer an installation service, which in many cases is more than the cost of the summer house. I was going to consider biting  this particular bullet but despite having had to swear never to by any more flat pack furniture ever again, it seems building a flat pack shed/summerhouse is a different matter and should be ‘simple’. Watch this space.