To Mum - Our Garden

Hey Mum,

I started faffing around in the garden today.

Well, I say today - it was this afternoon/evening when we got back from having Sunday dinner. Pete's a good cook, but it's not like how we used to make it.

I suppose things are never quite how we did things.



So this is what the garden ended up looking like after a quick tidy up.

All I did really was pull weeds and grass out of the shale we put down last year. You were right, it's made weeding it SO much easier!

Though we do have an ant problem that is thriving under that covering... whoops.

But hey - this is the other side of the path:

As you can see, it's gone a little mad!



I have no idea what's happened to the chives!

It looks like there's nothing left of them doesn't it!
I might have to invest in some more just to add to it.

They're flowering beautifully though. So that's good.




I'm also going to HAVE to do something about the Bay tree - you wouldn't believe how mad it's gone, look:

I'll have to get either Shimbo or Wayne to come have a chop at it. Though Libor is up this weekend, and he's tall... so maybe I'll get him to do it.

I promise not to let Geoff at it!! haha


Also, the spider mites have been attacking it again:


I can't remember what you used to do to get rid of it. Was it a spray?
I'm going to try trimming it off next weekend when I'm down and see if that helps... really wish you were here to help though.



Also, I think the Cats have been sitting in the Lavender...
 something just gives me a feeling about it....

It was sprawled out on the path, so I've tried to train it to either side of the tiger lilies... I guess we'll see in time whether that was a good idea or a catastrophic one. Not that you'd mind - I know you didn't really like the lavender all that much! It hasn't flowered since December, since you left... maybe it knows haha.

Not sure what's going on with the St. Johns Wart, it looks dead, but I have a vague recollection that it used to do this all the time.

There's still green growth on it, and I didn't pull any of the dead looking stuff off just in-case it isn't ACTUALLY dead.

 I suppose time will tell on that.

Sorry if it ends up as just a dead twig... but I never liked it anyway hahaha

In other news, the Apple Tree is definitely in a better place! You were probably right about it getting too much sun in the centre of the garden, because it's thriving near the wall.


Well, Maybe not 'THRIVING'...

... it does still kind of look like a twig with leaves glued onto it...


But look! No black stuff on it!


I'm hoping one day it'll actually blossom and everything. How long has it been growing now?

Can't believe how long it's taken for that little seed to be more than just a tiny twig - but we were always amazed when it survived, weren't we? So it's doing well.

We've got a newbie in the corner too - I think it's a weed, but I liked it, it's pretty, so I'm leaving it.

Besides, it's not interfering with anything yet - and you always said that weed is just a plant growing where you don't want it to. If it starts taking over, I'll pull it out.
The Strawberries are blooming now too!

Fingers crossed in a month we'll have some lovely ripe red strawberries to steal for the kiddies.

Remember how awesome it was the first time we got a harvest off them??

And how Chris and Zak used to love to pinch them when they lived here?

Speaking of harvesting - look at the harvest I got from the Rhubarb this time round!

 It had been left to its own devices because no one realised it needed chopping back.

You should have seen it! The corner was just a mass of leaves!

The head is starting to split too, so me and Rachel are going to try and divide a bit off for her to plant in the new garden.




You'd love her new house mum, it's beautiful. You'd be so proud of her. I know you always were - but the way she's managed to move on with everything and make a new start. She never gives up, does she? Just like you.


                 Neither does this fecking ROCK!! It has gone crazy again!

 But it's covering the edging like you said it would.

So much of the garden has gone totally mad.

It was so overgrown when I got back yesterday that I was starting to think we had a rock jungle rather than a rock garden.

Some of it is growing in a good way - filling in the spaces you were talking about, but there's still gaps that I don't know how to fill in...

 Maybe you had plans for what to do with this part, but I really don't know what to do. I'm hoping Rachel with help.

She's got much better green fingers than I do, but it feels like this is OUR garden... and I don't want to loose that part of us.

Speaking of lost...

You wont believe who got swallowed up by the ivy!!



So yeah, just been trying to get it back to how you would want it if you were still here.

I hope I've not done anything too wrong!!

There has been a slight migration that I've kept by the way.

Right in the middle of the stones, a little flower has managed to break through from the edge, and has ended up in the white stones... I thought it looked so pretty, and made me think of you - and how you would never do things quite how you were expected to, or how people wanted you to - but how you made it perfect anyway. So I'm not going to move it.


I love you mum.

I'll keep the garden nice for you - like I always promised when you weren't well.

I miss you.

xxxxxx