On Saturday, Piers worked all day to form another third of the garden wall in the garden in Dorset. When he came in, after bashing the rocks into place, his arms and back ached and he had pins-and needles in his right shoulder. He needed a shower and a refreshing drink.
Yesterday, I worked all day to dig and plant the ground made available by the creation of the wall. I worked with the sound of blackbirds, robin, collared doves, wood pigeons, wood-pecker and rooks in the background. We have had many bird visitors to the fat balls hanging under the viburnum tree. Blue- coal- long tailed- and great-tits, chaffinch, and both kinds of sparrow come and go. They are getting to know the territory, and where the best worms are.
Most of the plants I am using have been rescued from this garden or our previous garden and put into pots to wait their time. I can never be sure what I will find when I knock out a pot. Will the plant be pot-bound or have made hardly any roots? Will I be able to split the plant and hopefully get 3 for the price of one? Will the plant have turned up its toes altogether?
I haven't done this kind of gardening before. The site is very small and on several levels, so, rather than the traditional herbaceous border that I am more used to, I am placing individual plants into tiny spaces between rocks, with a background of planted beds either side of a stepping-stone path. Some alpines - saxifrage, sisyrinchium, alchemilla mollis, thymes and chamomile so far - are also going into the gravel between the stones that form the hard surface area. They don't seem to have much to keep them alive here. I shall have to be conscientious about watering, and perhaps give them some feed when they get going.
This last gardening spate involved a lot of scrambling over piles of stones to get to the higher parts of the garden. Today my knee has swollen and makes a painful click when I walk. The pain is worth it, and I shall reward myself with a refreshing drink!
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