Work In Progress

I tend to launch into big garden projects without taking photos of how things were at the start.  The current project is no exception, but I can at least document the work in progress.

The first part of the garden taming was to eliminate the brushwood and small trees from the area near the conservatory.  The paths were getting overgrown and I was beginning to get annoyed by the tendency of the wild rose to scratch my face as I went past.   This picture shows the state of affairs now that the work is done.   The area of dirt around the Lilac in the centre-right of the picture and the bed delineated by rocks, is where the brushwood used to be.  It took just over a week to take it all out and shred it or cut it up.   Now I will be able to maintain the area with the mower; I'll plant grass seed just as soon as the ground becomes reliably moist.

The other major project involves taming the area that was recently cleared for me of brambles and nettles by Joel from up the road, using his impressive 100hp tractor and flail.   The area is clear now, but the weeds are regrowing.   Hopefully, if I mow them often enough, I won't need to call him back in to help.   But there are nasty rocks sticking up out of the ground that will wreck my mower, so the current project is to dig them all out.   I am using them to create a small dry stone wall to delineate the managed area (and to stop people wandering off the edge of the cliff alongside to the left.

The unkempt area downhill is truly wild; I doubt if anything has been done with it in living memory.  As mentioned, it's basically a cliff, so difficult to work at the best of times.   The box bushes and trees are being suffocated by wild Clematis that is also blocking the view of the valley.   Once I have the sitting area sorted, I will have to do some work to manage the view; take out some of the dead trees and cut back the Clematis.