Before and after

Nature abounds right now. The lovely warm weather through March and again after Easter has meant that everything is growing rapidly and bounteously -- we are awash with plants. My new borders are rooting in nicely (or at least until the slugs get them), the cherry and apple trees are blossoming, and even the wisteria is starting to turn purple. Most impressive, however, is the herb box.

In August last year, it looked like this:



Now, it's this. Mint, thyme, chives, parsley, marjoram, and coriander -- all growing spectacularly!



In fact, we have so much mint and parsley that I'm running out of things to make with them. Time for some tabbouleh, mint choc chip ice cream, and, best of all, my "Fauxjitos" -- Sailor Jerry rum, mint syrup, and soda water.

Several parts of our back garden, on the other hand, are considerably less abundant than they were last year. After a couple of months of continuous, back-breaking labour, we've gone from this:



To this. My RHS encyclopedia pretty much implies that after three years of neglect, you may as well move house rather than trying to fix the problem, but I'm glad we didn't give up.



Not bad, if I say so myself. The best part of clearing the ancient brambles and tree-trunk-sized chunks of ivy is that we won't have to do this much work again. Uprooting this degree of planting is a one-time job -- particularly once we get the sheeting down and the gravel on top of that. It's a temporary solution until I can figure out exactly what I want to do along this side of the garden.

Finally, the border outside our front door. Annoyingly, I don't have a decent picture of its overgrown state before we tackled it. This is the closest I can get -- you can see the growth in the distance.



Now, we've dug out the various ferns that had taken up residence, removed the hawthorn tree in a giant tub that was nestling in the back, and cut back the budleia and forsythia. In their place, I've planted my evergreen collection: 2 Japanese azaleas, 2 rhododendrons, 2 conifers, a pieris, a euonymous, and some heathers -- all dwarf, thankfully. So far, so good. I'm getting flowers and new growth on all the plants. Keep your fingers crossed that they live long and prosper.