What *have* I been doing to the garden?

Well, I've been keeping the grass useable since my sister cut it - thats a big thing! Nobody would ever mistake it for a lawn, but thats okay, I disagree with monoculture in any case :) I've also been getting in the corners that my sister couldn't reach with the lawnmower, making sure that the *layers* of old grass get pulled up, and stopping it encroaching any nearer to the compost bin.

The little flower border nearest the patio is planted up a bit more, and more or less weeded. Its also slightly wider - my ambition is to have very little grass, a la Alys Flowers :) Happily, strawberry plants seem to *love* the soil! So do aquilegia, which self seed everywhere :)

The right hand border is where most effort has been - my mum, when she stayed, spent three quarters of an hour (and remember, she's 85 years old!) bent double over the potententilla at the very end, pulling all the long grass away from underneath it, then weeding it properly, and shaping it too - it looks a lot happier!

I could see such a difference! So I've been working on that border consistently. Digging up some turf to expand it, getting rid of a sedge thats overtaken everything, pruning a blackcurrant bush and some raspberry canes, digging up grass thats growing in the border itself, mulching with anything I could lay my hands on, prettifying a lavender bush, and even, ta-da, planting some mint, which came from my previous house. Happily, in with the mint was some love in a mist, which was on my list to get, as the seeds are edible and I *love* the plant, and thats grown already, tho its a bit leggy because it was so late.

I also planted my beautiful, beautiful sedum in this area - the soil around that will *not* be disturbed :)

The other side, the north facing side, I've left more or less alone till now, but I've just started to cut back two of the shoulder high rhodedendrons ... I didn't even know there were two of them in this spot, the border's so overcrowded, its crazy. I'm reserving that space for my blueberry plants - they're far enough out from the fence that they'll get enough light. Lots of cutting back still to do, including training the tree-height rhodie so that it doesn't kill the cobnut tree. I have a cobnut tree!

There's a very narrow border that runs down the side of the house, just outside the back door, that was completely overgrown with ivy and sedge. It was taking forever just to keep it in check - it was 6 or 7 layers thick. My lovely neighbour, when I asked his permission to really chop it back, actually came round less than a week later, and did it for me! I now have an open aspect when I open the back door, not the lowering gloom of eight feet tall ivy blocking my path to the garden. Lovely! There's a climber of some description that wasn't *quite* overwhelmed by the ivy, with a single solitary fruit, so I'll be watching that with interest - pix coming soon. And I've realised its a fantastic siting for *more* strawberry plants :)

The border of the patio thats underneath the kitchen window has been dug out, to the depth of one course of bricks below the air bricks and the damp course - its going to have membrane and slate put down there, and I may even get to do that this weekend! We'll see, I make no promises, after all its Bonfire Weekend.

I have a single border at the front, and I was just going to give it a really thorough weeding and plant whatever I wanted to plant there. However, its not as weed ridden all the way along as I thought. There's creeping buttercup, true - but there's also a lot of bulbs in there, and no way I want to damage them. So its a bit of make-do there, while I see what's what.

Such a lot thats been done - with quite a bit of help, too, and I'm very grateful for it all. My little garden is a living, breathing entity again :) and I'm very happy about it.