Progress?

Well after saying I wouldn't be blogging with any more progress we suddenly made more progress!!

OH had a week off, hired another excavator, whacker plate and powered wheel barrow and went for the hard landscaping with great enthusiasm - 12 + tonnes of scalpings (or 40mm to dust to the hardened professional) later and we have made quite a difference to our outside spaces.

We have more or less retained the clay banks now with new railway sleepers and cleared the pathway all around the property.

As you can see from the photos, the area we will have is getting much more visible and I'm even deliberating garden furniture! 

We planted our Bay tree today - we were given it some years ago by OH's mother when she was moving to a flat. It had a special place as was a 50th wedding anniversary present. Over the years I have nurtured it and potted it on until now (don't think there's a pot big enough!!) so in the photo you can see an area with the bay tree in the middle - this area is going to become a herb garden as it's easily accessed from the house. We added a lot of compost as the clay soil is like concrete!

View of the terracing so far and the area covered with scalpings ready for sandstone flags. 

Progress on the steps - it'll be a bit of a steep climb up to the grass area! 

Quite a nice view of the garden and landscape beyond here, we are lucky to have a lovely paddock at the back and views of the Meon hill and beyond. The hedge at the back of the garden has taken some work, it was covered in brambles and seemed to have died off in places but with a lot of TLC it's recovered well & we'll grow it a bit taller for shelter & protection but not too tall so as to spoil the view.

The air source heat pump is up and running and the path way to the other side of the house ready for paving...

A selection of plants I'm nurturing and dividing for new beds and borders..... Another crazy thing we've done this week was to agree to open our garden at the end of May for the NGS open gardens charity scheme! Nothing like a deadline to work to.... 

Here's OH with his new toys!

I also made jam this week - we have a plum tree in the garden (it needs a little attention, another job for the autumn) and the crop is plenty, after much deliberation on what variety it is, I was told they are 'Pershore Yellow Egg Plums' 

http://www.pershoreplumfestival.org.uk/index.php/about/

I like making jam and preserves and will be entering our local produce show in September ! 

And finally an amazing sunset this week, we we're driving at the time but I managed to capture this picture! It was a breathtaking sight and seemed to change every 5 minutes but I'm pleased with this result.

Anyway I'll be back with news of one thing or another if not it'll be news of my new blog....

W x