2021          The story of the restoration of our gardens.

Please click on the small pictures to see a larger version

Friday 13th August

Just spent an hour chopping down weeds in the front garden until it became chilly

Wednesday 25th August

The Start of my 'weeding' I recut the edge of the front lawn at the back of the drive inlet and about a metre along the side nearest to us. Also weeded the edge of the drive and lawn in this area

Thursday 26th August

Continued edging the lawn

Friday 27th August

I continued along the edge of the rose bed and clipped a conifer back

Around this time John from across the road spotted me up the ladder with Trudie at the foot and he came across and offered to use his machine to cut the top of the hawthorn tree an offer we were delighted to accept

Saturday August 28th

I pushed a little into the rose bed from the lawn and started to clear the corner of the drive and front of the house

The only rose in bloom

Sunday 29th August

Worked round the drive to meet the work I'd done on the 26th
There's bluebells, crocus, daffodil, Hyacinth bulbs and snow drops to be careful of. I managed with only disturbing a few

Monday 30th August

Carried on into the interior - feel like I'm really making progress now
tricky finding somewhere to kneel and sit.
Severely cut back a bush on the edge of the garden nearest the road, you may remember it had red leaves. All the red leaves were now green and I cut them down.
At this point the most I could manage weeding was an hour net, not counting the rest every 15 minutes

For a change, i.e. not sitting, on my knees or lying down I did something standing up - trimmed the red bush, I don't know what it's called

Tuesday 31st August

Carried on struggling with the centre of the rose bed

Wednesday 1st September

Carried on struggling with the centre of the rose bed, almost cleared it now

Friday 3rd September

I think I walked on the 2nd and it was the 'Party' at the Cafe afterwards

Started work at Leyland Motors as a Student Apprentice on this day in 1986

Carried on under the front room window round the rhododendron

The grape Hyacinths are bursting through

is the rose bed weeded?

Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th September Matt's birthday weekend

Monday 6th September

Outside front door - I'm slowing down, not used to awkward hard work

The back garden is just as wild as the front was but there are a few flowers to distract one

Tuesday 7th September

Still outside front door but moving towards kitchen window

Monday 13th September

What happened on the 8th, 9th, 10th 11th & 12th?
8th was a long walk with Damian
10th I neglected garden to walk on the moss
11th was the driving range - up late watching women's final
12th, Sunday, I think I watched motor racing etc

Still under kitchen window

More weeding in the difficult patch outside the kitchen window
Trimmed the conifer next to the red leaved bus. I think I'll see if I can shape it like Susie.  I cut this to put the clippings into the green bins to keep the grass from sticking to the bottom.
Cut the lawns too

I think I've finished the area under the kitchen window, morning and afternoon sessions.

In the evening I dug up the large piece of grass, I couldn't move it with my trowel. Also dug out 2 sycamore trees and two brambles.
Now I'll leave this corner for a while

At the end of the day I'd locked the gate and found I'd left the brush out so I just threw it over the gate, more fool me, lazy fool me. That wasn't intended to happen. Two steps forward and one backward - I didn't swear.
I think I've finished the area under the kitchen window, morning and afternoon sessions.

Tuesday 14th September or Wednesday 16th September - there's some confusion in my records

Three periods again

The roses now have space to breathe again. I've fed and watered them and they are responding

Moving further up the boundary I made an impressive change.  

In the morning I removed the decayed old bird table. The Support had rotted away at the ground and it was only held up by the ivy
In the afternoon I removed all the ivy from inside the berberis bush. The berberis bush was also helping to prop the bird table up.
I decided not to replace the table because I'd made if for Susie so she could see the birds when she was working in the kitchen.  Looking back she spent a lot of time in the kitchen and I hardly spend any now
In the evening I started to clear up round where the table had been and removing the grass which was dominating the border. I had to force myself to stop as I was falling into my old habit of working myself till I dropped leaving nothing for the next day
There's two photos taken in June but the wildness is in its infancy then
The gravel is next door

The berberis freed

Thursday 16th September

In the morning I worked round the berberis and rhododendron

There are lucoseums under the first photo

1430 hours - sitting in the sun admiring my previous work and seeking inspiration to get going again

1645 hours - I was relaxing out of the sun and I sent him these two photos to show my achievements to date

Friday 17th September

What we all thought for many years was my Dad's birthday but it turns out his birth certificate says the 18th
This morning's work
All I managed to do was dig out the next part of the lawn edge, the north side.

Afternoon
Attacked the north-west corner
Just blindly hacking away. Most of the cutting today was the baby's breath, lots of small white flowers in spring. It had virtually taken over the left side of the corner. It opens out onto the footpath but most of the growth over the last three years has been towards the centre of the garden. It was mostly hidden by the red leafed bush.
Beyond the log there is a huge hole where the ash tree used to be. It was quite concerning when I first found it but it must be the old trunk rotting away
There's a privet bush, firethorn bush, conifer and rambling rose that all need taming yet.
I think I'll be in that corner all weekend. All my green bins are full and I'm on plastic bags now but I'm going to use some weedings to fill the hole

A couple of helpers

The rambling rose on the front hedge is flowering again.  I hope one day to get it growing along all the hedgerow

Saturday 18th September

Worked hard in the corner today cutting back shrubs and digging out huge grasses and a tripod. I buried the base and planted a miniature Black-Eyed Susan while Susie was still alive but it was overshadowed by the shrubs and soon died. It was hard digging it out.


I've got an idea what I want to do in the corner but there's still a lot of cutting back to do but that can wait.   My brown bins are full so I'm now filling black bags

I've got a variegated Yew tree and a Cordyline in pots which I want to plant out and I'm thinking they'll look al right in the corner crude attempt photoshopping.

Later I finished cutting the lawn edges

An interesting spider

Sunday 19th September

Made a little progress today
I've found a new word game and even though I went to bed around 10:30 I got so involved I didn't switch the light off until well after 2am so I had a slow start.
I had to hoe the rose bed because the weeds are fighting back
I started on the garden next to the inlet in the drive and had just got going when it started to rain, not very hard but enough to start to get wet. I stopped for dinner Charlie Bigham fish pie and tub of rice pudding.
The rain more or less didn't really get started and the afternoon brightened up.
I put the television on and ended up watching some football.
I got going again before tea and cleared the patch in the photo.

The progress of the rose. There's lots of buds but only these two open

I was surprised to notice one of the orchids was flowering!

Monday 20th September

Carried on round the drive

New brush

Also cut the grass back and front

Tuesday 21st September

More weeding today!

The first photo is this morning's work, the second photo is this afternoon's work, note not as tidy, I'm wearing out, the third photo is the day's work.

Lovely sky, later

Wednesday 22nd September

Moved the Yew Tree and Cordyline to where I think they should be planted out. It was a struggle moving them from the back, before dinner

Afternoon's work, after golf

1641 hours, progress during the day

1748 hours, work completed at the end of the day

Wednesday 23rd September

Morning's work clearing path and work still to be done
Dentist inspection in the afternoon, too tired to continue

Friday 24th September

Spotted birds flying overhead, first winter migrants, geese? Mobile so not very good photo, too far away. They had gone by the time I thought of getting my camera, same with the buzzards.
Finished weeding path and started on corner

Saturday 25th September

I Lifted the Cordyline out of the pot, it was as easy as that, and planted it out. I couldn't move the Yew, solid in the pot, so as it was raining I gave up and watched the golf on television.
The little bush is full of buds
It was a lovely afternoon but by then I was absorbed in the golf and too tired anyway, not sleeping too well

The little rose bush is full of buds

The cleared, fed and watered roses are blooming again. Sadly the stems of some of them are weak

Sunday 26th September

Planted out the yew this morning and cleaned out the drive drain
Nothing else done partly because of motor racing and golf on television also probably too tired with watching golf for two nights to 1am

Monday 27th September

Worn out, three late nights watching the Ryder Cup, so no work done

Tuesday 28th September

Hospital appointment, finger, cold and windy in the afternoon so no work done even though it turned out sunny

As I came home from the hospital I thought the garden looked neat

Wednesday 29th September

Visitor, again no work done in the afternoon even though it was sunny but windy

Thursday 30th September

Morning Walk

I think the panic is over with the front.  I'll start on the back

Friday 1st October

The weeds are taking over again so I attempted to hoe.  It was too wet really but I did my best.  I think I'm going to have get down on my knees and pluck each individual grass out, hoeing just seems to settle them elsewhere but I've done my best between showers

But it's not all bad, the roses are fighting back

The Back Garden before

I've remembered to take photos before this time. Ithink I need to take them again on a dull day