The weather has been lovely for days and days here, it was great that it extended into the weekend when I was planting bulbs, these are Iris Reticulata which will flower in the Spring and hopefully look pretty with the Violas that are going in at the same time.
However it's all gone down hill today, drizzly rain here at the moment ... just in time for the arrival of the greenhouse in a couple of days time. Let's hope it cheers up again!
I also planted some dry snowdrops in this bed I cleared under the Willow tree. It was just a mess of weeds and straggly grass. I know dry snowdrops don't establish well but by the time I got it all cleared, it was way too late to buy any in the green earlier in the year. I lost count of the number of dandilions I forked up, fortunately the soil is really good and so I was able to get out pretty much all of the roots. It is my fond hope that some of the bulbs will take and naturalise this area.
I've got some Cyclamen Coum tubers (for Spring colour) and some Cyclamen Hederifolium plants to go in there too. The Cyclamen Hederifolium plants are flowering right now so a bit of instant colour. I haven't got a big enough budget to completely plant it up, For now, nine will make a nice splash of flowering and I'm hoping if I leave them alone, they will also self seed and spread out to create a carpet of colour.
I have plans to put some shade loving herbaceous plants in too, hopefully I will be able to split clumps and take root cutting to make the most of my budget. Some will be grown from seed next year. Got several on my shopping list!
Whilst I was getting on with the nicer side of gardening, planting and dreaming of future flowers, MTM was concreting the top of the steps which is a bit of a convergence point. It joins up the steps coming down from the house, the slope coming down from the top gravel garden, the new steps going down into the bottom half of the garden and the timber decking area where the patio furniture lives. I will do photographs of that when the slabs are down.
Can you see the timber mowing edge I have added where the bed meets (what I laughingly call) my lawn. This year, the moles haven't really left me me much left to mow! DON'T get me started on moles .... I have asked next door's cats to catch them for me, I often find decapitated mice which they thoughfully leave on the path for me. Mice do dig up cyclamen tubers so they're doing their bit on that front but the moles are far more troublesome ..... get to it kitties!
