Raking up

After raking out fallen branches and debris from under our recently renovated beech hedge (we gave it a serious short back, top, and sides) we decided to renew and freshen up the adjacent path with bark chips.  Several bags were emptied with the contents raked out and extended under the hedge and up to the trunks to act as a weed suppressant and to retain moisture while the hedge recovers from the shock of the whole operation.

In the woodland, one bed had somehow managed to avoid the attention of our border mulching regime so we cleared it of fallen leaves and weeds before spreading our mulch mix of 50% compost to 25% leaf mould and 25% coarse sand.  While there, ferns in the adjoining beds had their tatty overwintered leaves removed and we were careful to avoid treading on  the snowdrops and rapidly emerging narcissi that carpet the area.

On the north side of the cottage we tackled a large hardy Fuschia by taking it’s height down by over a half and removing a number of weak and dead stems.  Next to the Fuschia is our wall trained Philadelphus which we’ve documented before.  It’s proven to be very successful and an annual prune, where we tie in new growth and remove the old stems, sees it flowering its socks off in early summer, highlighted beautifully by the blooms of nearby Geranium ‘Rozanne’.