This week’s blog will be short and, hopefully, sweet as, again, I have been focussed principally on a single task – but not Grange this time.
Having started the tropical bed last week when the, incredibly showery weather allowed, I wanted to continue to strip it out which totalled only another 3 days.
We knew which plants we wanted to keep in the bed, what we could try and transplant to other areas of the garden (lots of primroses and Lily of the Valley), and what we were happy to lose. Sadly one of the casualties was our large yucca plant which looked great when it was flowering – and indeed had a large flower bud when I dug it out.
It would have been great to keep the yucca as, based on the size of the trunk, it had evidently been there a long time. Since cutting back the lonicera hedge behind it in our first year, giving it a lot more space and light, it flourished and has flowered frequently but that led to the parts which had flowered dying off making the whole plant more straggly. Due to its size there was no way it could have been moved, and no where we think it would be appropriate. Thankfully, we have other, smaller yuccas that we can add in its place when we get to the re-planting stage.
We have managed to re-locate the spotted laurel which we have cut down a lot and hope will take root, and we will move a couple of clumps or hypericum which will definitely take as it grows like a weed here. However, clearing the areas that we want to plant these shrubs, one of which is an out of the way corner behind Dairy (the building housing Dave’s gym, the boot room and bike room), took one of the 3 days available.
The wetter days of the week were spent in our own home and, one afternoon making very slow progress with the white plastic lambris before I was able to buy some more appropriate nails which should make the job a lot faster but, if the forecast is to be believed, the weather will allow me to make additional really good progress on the tropical bed next week – maybe to complete phase 1 …..
There is of course lots of rugby to be enjoyed next weekend as has taken some time over the last 2 days!
À bientôt.