It was a very different scene that greeted my eyes this morning. Mist hung over the valley like a grey veil, I could hardly see anything beyond our boundary trees. It wasn't too cold so after some coffee I headed off to the garden once more.
This is the grass bed soon after I began the clear up. The actual before picture would have shown 3ft high grasses mixed with brambles and small trees.
This morning after a final rake over it was time for the best part of the job, deciding where to put the plants.
The basic structure of the planting scheme is in. I used some of the plants that were originally in that bed, others that had self seeded and a few that I split from existing clumps in the garden. It hasn't rained at all today so I have been watering copiously as the soil is quite dry. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the 'frosted curls' survive as they are not that reliable. I always tend towards flowing lines in my garden design. I find symmetry pleasing to the eye but too even spacing starts to look regimented which I don't like at all.
I can see that it is going to take quite a while to clean all the gravel before I can put a good thick layer over the whole bed. After that, all that will be left to be done is to position some large ornamental stones and repair the end section with some rocks once the new steps have been built. And then finally it will be DONE. My neighbour's son came over to 'help' me with my gardening, he even brought over a little trailer with trowel, secateurs, hand fork and of course a screwdriver. So sweet.
I'm happy to report that I have lost a few more pounds. I rewarded myself with some Thornton's chocolates and they were a bit of a disappointment. I found them too sweet and the chocolate not that good. Hopefully this is less a reflection on the chocolates but more a sign that I am becoming less interested in chocolates. Ha! I do find that once I reach my goal and simply need to maintain my weight that it helps if I only have 'treats' that I really like. It's amazing the amount of high calorie foods that I could eat simply because they are in front of me, even if they are not my favourites. That is where I need to be careful once I do reach my goal weight.
