Rain at Last!!

Rain at last.  This summer has been so hot and dry that I have despaired of the garden It all looks so tired and dried up. We have been watering, but ithas been  impossible to keep enough water up to the garden and despite extensive mulching, we are losing plants each day.

Yesterday afternoon, however, the sky grew grey and cloudy and finally we had some rain. Not a lot - probably only 3mm, but enough to revitalise the lawn and freshen up the shrubs. Unfortunately there has been no respite from the heat and the weather is now hot and muggy. I can imagine all the weeds rubbing their hands together in glee, thinking of the growing they are going to be able to do!!

In the evenings, we are able to get out and do a bit of weeding and tidying up. I have been busy with a pair of secateurs, a bottle of weed poison and a paint brush, cutting off rampant blackberry shoots and painting the cuts with the poison. It works a treat, but I always finish up more than a little scratched.

Meanwhile Mark has re-landscaped an area in the front garden which had been demolished by a falling willow tree. Now we are waiting for more substantial rains so we can replant the area.

He has widened a narrow path so the lawn mower can go from the top level to the bottom

Old sleepers have been pullud out and an old path filled in

The old path has  been covered with mulch ready for new trees.

The old bank has been re-terraced and new retaining walls built.

And the results of all Mark's hard labour?

A much more attractive area of the garden. Thanks Mark.

Liz Needle