While the flower beds along the house and the meadow at the entrance are all looking great (summer at auchenstroan), the flower bed the other side of the lawn has always been a bit of an eyesore. Most of the plants were, according to Nicole, a mish mash, in the wrong place; Crocosmia, Yellow Loosestrife, Solomon’s seal and Hostas. In amongst these, Ground Elder, Bindweed and Willow Herb had taken over. With me otherwise occupied trying to rescue some veggies (veggies version 2), it was left up to Nicole to clear the bed.
Working as a gardener and fairly busy right now, Nicole fitted this in around her work. It was a large task and took the best part of a week to clear it. Patiently waiting by the greenhouse were rows of carefully potted on flowers, Echinacea, Achillea and Salvias to create a wee “prairie” from the recently weeded border. These were having to be watered daily and so would benefit hugely from finally getting into the ground.
Finally, the bed was cleared and a mountain of weeds made their way to the compost bin. Nicole was exhausted but very happy indeed. Now for the good bit, the planting out.
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There was no waiting or having a wee rest to recover from all the effort of clearing it. I was on a deadline to mulch it. Nicole headed off to work and I was straight into mulching – it took 4 trailer full’s of mulch to put a decent covering down. Hard, but satisfying work. There is something very attractive about a recently mulched flower bed.
Nicole got home and after a quick cuppa, she was out planting. Given all the problems we’ve had in the veggie patch with slugs and snails, each flower was carefully surrounded with wool.
The net result looks amazing, but will be even better once all the flowers grow and bloom. That will most likely be next year.
