Reclaimed by the garden
May. 7th, 2018 10:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ruthct21Mick has written elsewhere about planting a dogwood hedge to try to soak up the excess water coming into the garden. I will be putting some buddleia at strategic points to attract butterflies etc. as well as planting out loads of lovely Pink Fir Apple potatoes plus other plants and flowers as they become big or tough enough to live outdoors in Yorkshire.
Much of this is following on the work we started two summers ago when we were planning to travel round the world. We cleared beds and covered them with black plastic so the weeds would be stifled and we could start fresh when we came back. This was particularly important on the steep slopes from the lawn which have always been difficult to manage, so we wanted to try clearing them then covering them with good ground cover plants. At present I have a steadily-increasing population of sedum cuttings and seedlings which are colonising the conservatory and will - I hope! - contribute to creating the permanent cover on our difficult plots. But we may need more serious ground cover to make this work.
We will see an estate agent tomorrow, partly to get an up-to-date valuation of the house and also to discuss the options for moving house. I suspect that Brexit, if it still happens, will blow a big hole in the housing market next year. So is it a choice between cut and run now or be stuck where we are for several years? What does the industry think? We'd like to be somewhere warmer, which means a lot further south, and we also need to think ahead about how we could reorganise or adapt wherever we are living if one or both of us becomes less mobile or has other problems with independent living.
For the moment, after this long cold depressing winter, it is a real pleasure to spend several hours a day out in the sunshine putting things right in the garden and simply enjoying being outside in such a lovely place.
Much of this is following on the work we started two summers ago when we were planning to travel round the world. We cleared beds and covered them with black plastic so the weeds would be stifled and we could start fresh when we came back. This was particularly important on the steep slopes from the lawn which have always been difficult to manage, so we wanted to try clearing them then covering them with good ground cover plants. At present I have a steadily-increasing population of sedum cuttings and seedlings which are colonising the conservatory and will - I hope! - contribute to creating the permanent cover on our difficult plots. But we may need more serious ground cover to make this work.
We will see an estate agent tomorrow, partly to get an up-to-date valuation of the house and also to discuss the options for moving house. I suspect that Brexit, if it still happens, will blow a big hole in the housing market next year. So is it a choice between cut and run now or be stuck where we are for several years? What does the industry think? We'd like to be somewhere warmer, which means a lot further south, and we also need to think ahead about how we could reorganise or adapt wherever we are living if one or both of us becomes less mobile or has other problems with independent living.
For the moment, after this long cold depressing winter, it is a real pleasure to spend several hours a day out in the sunshine putting things right in the garden and simply enjoying being outside in such a lovely place.
