August 15th

We’re dig, dig, digging (again!)

We’ve never been afraid of hard work. Our gardening adventures began more than 25 years ago when, with a toddler and a three month old baby, we hatched a plan to dig up our entire back garden and redesign and replant it. Laying turf in the dark was an experience! Now all these years later, here we go again with more hard work and digging planned. I hate digging!

I’ve only myself to blame really. I’ve just ordered a selection of iris rhizomes from Plant Heritage; they’re ‘Benton’ irises bred by renowned gardener and artist Sir Cedric Morris and I’m really excited to have the chance to grow them. To make up for the expense I’ve had to dig a small extension to the iris beds, ably assisted by our resident mallard duck! The bed’s been filled with garden compost and now I await the irises.

I also went to Pershore College nursery sale on a very wet afternoon and bought a lovely selection of perennials, filling the car boot. There’s no space in the existing borders so, first of all, we’re going to empty one corner of a bed in the back garden. It’s full of eupatorium, solidago and asters among others, all growing well but crowding out smaller plants. Next step (or first step, in fact!) is to dig another dedicated ‘autumn border’ to plant them in. Then the new purchases can go into the bed in the back garden. Phew!

Unfortunately it doesn’t stop there – some members of the family would like a pond. I would too but don’t want to dig one! This has been under discussion for years but with the wild duck still happily living here it may come to fruition. We may need a digger …..

My Highlight

I’ve taken part in the Big Butterfly Count – what a treat to be surrounded by dozens of these beautiful insects.