In spite of the continued April showers – yes, it is May – and the cool temperatures, after an impromptu afternoon snooze I galvanised myself into action. Here is the overall result, seen from the patio:
And again from the other end of the garden:
I’ve kept some of the flowering broccoli, in case they attract useful insects. I haven’t seen any of late but perhaps the birds have been eating them all. It has certainly been a pleasure to watch the robins as they feed.
Anyway, in the foreground of the first photo you will see that I have now acquired a second compost bin, courtesy of a good friend who felt she no longer had room for it herself. This is to be the finishing off bin and is decidedly empty at the moment…. As I had been turning over the original heap, I had been mixing up old and new compost, so it was quite difficult to separate them after that.
In any case, I am exceedingly pleased to have the bins both out of the way of my immediate eye line – the brown one had been right in front of where I usually sit for a few weeks. Now, I can sit and contemplate my next move more easily again.
Next moves this afternoon included spying dandelion flowers, which were swiftly removed. I reckon I still have at least twenty plants in the garden but this is a fraction of the number 18 months ago, before I started to do anything about them.
I also found a place to put the pots of plants one of my colleagues gave me the other day.
These contain from left to right: Lady’s Mantle, Lungwort and mint. I think that they might all have to stay in pots due to their tendency to take over, I understand. But I will make the necessary decisions on that one when I know where they might go!
Growing out of chaos 
I’m hoping that next weekend turns out to be nice so that we can get started on the flower garden. We’ve got ours raked out, but need to do some mulching/edging/weed control/separating. Lots of work ahead!
What kind of flowers do you plan to put in?
More like we need to divide and conquer what we already have growing. I’ll plant some perennials in pots,but the flower beds are full already.
Well, good luck, Heidi!
I can never decided where to put plants, As soon as i put them in the ground I think of a better spot!!
I tend to be quite spontaneous so I go with what my instinct says… At least, plants can generally be moved, can’t they?
True, true. They don’t get a say in the end unless they spread all over the place!
Yes!
You are on your way. The frustrating start and stop to spring this year really frustrated any effort to get the garden ready and put us all behind. I keep telling myself it is not a race…enjoy the moment.
Definitely! It is going to take me a few years I think to get my garden as I envision it, partly because of the time it takes plants to establish themselves. It’s exciting to see how quickly a job or two can create the feeling of transformation, though.