Gardening

Phew! It's humid. I have been pottering in the tiny garden, trying to organise it better and I think I have succeeded. Only time will tell if I have managed to move plants about without killing them - I had rather hoped that we would get lots of rain to water them in nicely without resorting to the hose pipe, but no such luck.

I have moved one of the rosemary plants to a sunny corner, shunted the variegated Weigela against the back wall where it won't smother the smaller plants, dug up the triffid, called that because I can't identify it, and the ice plants are now re-planted in front of the tall peonies and seem to be making a gradual recovery.

My new foxglove, a present from TGW, is now in the ground beside the new white Centaurea. By moving the rosemary, I made space in the little herb bed for my comfrey and there was even space to squeeze in a sage purpurea and the little coriander plant that has been clinging on to life for the past week, hoping I might treat it better.

All I have left to plant now is the sprawling lilac, my marjoram and the yellow geum. There's space for the geum but I'm not sure which little gap to put it into, so I shall wait until I'm sure; goodness only knows where I shall fit the marjoram. The lilac is going to be more troublesome, as getting near the wall requires one to wade through lilies (I thought they were crocosmia, but TGW tells me they're not) and I don't think the earth is high enough beside the wall. I shall probably end up planting it in the one raised bed I have, so that it can gracefully trail towards the lawn.

Yes, a lawn. Before I took a sharp knife out with me, it was more like a sea of dandelions, but I think I managed to get them all, dagger through the root, before they went to seed and the grass will be cut, just as soon as I can tear myself away from the keyboard to get all red in the face again!

Finally, after rather longer than it should have taken, the garden feels like it's mine. There are still lots of fuchsias from the previous owners, but they don't dominate quite so much now. I have managed to open out the small space we have so sitting on the bench means I can see more than the one plant in front of me. It's a feeling of great satisfaction. All I have to do now is to water everything again, put away the tools and then spend a few hours trying to get the bottom of my feet back to skin colour!