MAY THE 4TH BE WITH YOU

Happy Star Wars Day! 

 

Long ago in a galaxy far far away ....

May the Force be with you.  Ahhh not West Sussex Constabulary again!  Honest Guv, it wasn’t me …  I haven’t purr-loined any more neighbourhood cats or verbally abused slow serving fast food operatives.  Definitely not guilty. 

Brute force is what’s now needed to transform our stony, weed infested side border into a perfectly planted paradise.  This last fortnight has been a long hard slog of fence painting, stone picking and digging up weeds whilst dodging rain showers, soap and social calls from prospective Tory candidates who are harder to ignore than dog shit shoes.

 

New fence painted

Slowly a garden is beginning to emerge.  The newly painted fence has provided a lovely backdrop for planting and I’ve already got ideas percolating in that department.  I’m after a self-clinging climber called Campsis or Trumpet Vine to grow along the panels to break up the expanse of grey and add a bit of height.

 

Campsis also known as Trumpet Vine

Bridging the corner where the side wall ends and the fence panels begin, I’ve planted a pink rambling rose which I hope to trail across the top of the fence to plug the gap between both structures. 

 

Rambling rose in a lovely pink and white colour

Planted in a nice sunny corner spot

I’m all for low maintenance gardening so anything going into the border has to be fairly fuss free, able to cope with intense sunshine and be repellent to slugs/snails or any other critters looking for a free meal.  Euphorbias fit into this category quite well and I have a nice selection purchased last year ready to go into the soil along with some grasses, hellebores and salvias. 

 

Euphorbias - loved by me but not by slugs

Planting up is a slow process as before anything can be bedded in, the area has to be cleared of weeds and stones then topped up with a nice top soil/compost mix to add a bit of goodness. 

 

Weeding and stone clearing as you go along

So far only the corners of the border have been tackled.  It’s a case of digging for victory to meet in the middle.

 

Planting begun 

Lots of empty spaces to fill

Meanwhile as I slave away topping up my landscaper tan, two pairs of beady eyes are watching my every move from the comfort of their day beds behind the sofa.

 

My gardening audience

As dusk falls another tiny visitor scampers out onto the new patio to enjoy a spot of al fresco dining, Bertie watching its every move from a carefully concealed kitty vantage point.

 

Cute little mousey visitor

Certainly loves bird seed

If I was a Jedi master, I would be channelling the force to speed up this arduous landscaping task – I can’t wait until this is all done.