Much has been happening since my last post in March, although in many ways not enough has been happening gardening wise. On 25th March, Steve came with his digger and cleared the middle garden, taking out old rotten railway sleepers and the roots of conifers that my brother had chopped down previously. The remit was to make the area ‘gardenable’ and he did a good job. While he brought down sleepers and roots to the end of the garden, I looked after a huge bonfire to get rid of the waste. The fire was so huge and hot it smouldered for three days thanks to the creosote in the sleepers and my constant shoring up- the thing was like a volcano!

So this is what was left, a lovely cleared space ready for the new garden to be planted…

Compared to the overgrown dark place before it is so much more open and light. it also led me to coppicing back the shrubs just adjacent to this space, in the middle of the garden- shrubs that had become overgrown and badly shaped and needed renovation.

The side effect of this has been that for the first time since we arrived, you can now see right down the garden, almost as far as the orchard. In fact looking down through our new bi-fold patio doors, for the first time you get a sense of the size of the plot. In the manner of these things the photo doesn’t really do it justice.

Suffice to say, as I am writing this siting on the sofa in the living room, I can see the rabbits running across the garden over 100 metres away (little buggers!).

This has caused me to revise somewhat my plans for the middle garden, which I had though of as a secluded secret garden with a winding path and many shrubs, now I am thinking of a similar space but one that allows a vista to run through it keeping the view down between the trees. I have also been buying plants and now have a black bamboo, ferns and a clematis armandii to add to the mix. To say I am a little bamboozled by so many contrary ideas is no exaggeration. I really have not known where to start and have lots of plants in pots sitting around waiting to go in. Compounded by little or no time to garden this has lead to a state of pre-occupation, while also a sense that much else in the garden needs to be happening ( weeding and perennial beds for example) which isn’t. I am learning to enjoy the process and not be too hard on myself- this is after all the work of a life-time and should be joyful- not a job. More about this in the next post where I get all philosophical and new age-y ( watch out Auntie Cordy!).