Digging for victory

Hello everyone, after my rather long absence I am back and raring to go. I have been feeling so tired and jaded the last week or so and it has taken me a while to get back into the swing of things but September is going to change all of that. I have been spending so much time in the garden, really trying to make an impact and I must say that it is looking lovely. 

My border is lovely, not that I can take much credit for that as all these plants, bar the rose at the end and the apple tree at the front, were there already and have come into bloom. I am going to replace the fences in the next few days/weeks not because I mind the nice old looking ones, but because every now and again when I am out there there is a crash as yet another rotten piece of wood falls off. One strong wind and the whole lot could go as it is completely and utterly rotten.

My apple tree has taken beautifully and goes from strength to strength, who knows, maybe I will even get an apple or two next year! I am not touching the rhubarb as I have been warned off doing this in its first year, but oh, it is so tempting to nick some for a nice crumble. the stepping stones are actually massive stones that I dug out of the ground (now you see why digging a new bed takes me so many hours!) I will do something with them.

I kicked off my wellies and took a well earned break.

I have dug out this bed and added 2 climbing plants that will reach up to that trellis given time. On the far left is a clematis montana Elizabeth and on the right is....... oh, dear, I can't remember and I lost the tag!

Another picture of the same border (how did that happen?)

On this trellis I have painstakingly dug out another bed and this is another clematis, this one called star of India.

This small corner bed took me about 7 hours in total over 2 days, yes it really did. The man who lived here before me had piled all the stones that he had ever dug out of the earth into a pile here that had then started to grow its own life forms. I filled over 17 bags with rocks! My poor car didn't know what had hit it when I transported those to the tip.

Today I finished digging this bed and it has finally reached the end and matched up with another bed. Now the fun bit will start, choosing plants.

This was when I had not quite got to the end. From left to right, a honeysuckle, mombretia (transplanted from elsewhere in the garden), jasmine and clematis star of India.

yet more bed digging.

The border from the other end.

Close up.

Still haven't got the arch (and not sure I can actually afford one right now, but one day it will be there for the lovely red climbing rose to climb over.

Digging, digging, digging........

I have put together a raised bed, which is not yet in the ground, I will put some winter veg in here, got some cabbages and cauliflowers that are almost ready for planting out.

And after all that work, i am so tired, it is an early night for me!

Thanks for being patient!

Oh and Blogger seems to be behaving itself, in fact, all these photos downloaded in record time, first time! Got to be good news!