All change - again!

                                 



Why is it, that when you just seem to be getting something right in the garden, you have to start again?

Our inherited bilberry bushes, though interesting in themselves, were not giving us the colour  we need in one of the most used parts of the garden.  We must walk down the garden path several times a day and this sunny border needed some serious injection of colour, height and texture. 

Last year we thought we had finally managed to create something attractive in a relatively difficult part of the garden. We weeded the area next to the bilberries and introduced fox gloves, tall daisies, pulmonaria, aquilega and hardy geraniums - all taken from other parts of the garden.  These gave us something to enjoy as we swished past every day and strangely, the small, delicate pink flowers of the bilberries were much more noticeable than they used to be.

However, the heavy rainfall last winter washed away the bank next to the path and the bilberry roots were laid bare.  It was a muddy mess. Something had to be done and Doc, my husband was the man to do it.  For a week he put in some serious hard work, digging out the old plants and building a retaining wall made from stacked sleepers.  I am a liability in the garden nowadays, so all I could do was offer encouragement, pint glasses of elderflower cordial and a whole packet of chocolate digestive biscuits.  (I tested one or two myself just in case they were not up to the required standard for Digger Doc.)



Digging out the mature, woody bilberries was only a fraction of the effort required to transform this bed.  Doc now has 6 heavy duty sacks of rocks and stones.  If you would like them, let us know!  We cannot complain about the amount of stone our garden regurgitates because it is the stone that probably stops our house sliding down the hillside.

We have decided to leave this new, improved bed fallow for the rest of this year and cover it with (unattractive) black polythene until we are sure it is 'clean' of any nasties lurking in the depths. 

The bed is in a very sunny position and will be well drained and dry.  There are so many plants we can choose from that we hardly know where to start.  However, the first task is to move the ornamental silver leaved pear tree a metre or so because it is too close to the pergola.  This will need to be done in the autumn or winter, when it is dormant.  

Doc planted the pear tree a couple of years ago and at the time I did point out  that it was in the wrong place.  However, Doc has done so much hard work on the new flower bed, I will not say "I told you so!"  It is best to let 'sleeping builders lie.'