My New Garden.

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Laying Out The Garden.

The next picture shows the beds properly dug and filled ready to start planting.

A few plants came from work, but most of the Plants were those that had been stored up on my Allotment since before I moved. A few more were bought from local Garden Centres, although I tried to fill the beds without spending too much. I have decided that I will remove the row of big Conifers on the left later in the year. That will give me a long, wide, sunny bed that I will fill with flowering plants for next year.
When I did cut the first row of trees down on the right side of the garden, I chipped them and used them to make one of the paths between my new raised beds on my Allotment as I wasn't ready to do the paths in my garden. The bigger branches were collected by a friend who lives on a Narrow boat and uses a log burner to produce hot water on his boat though, as they wouldn’t go through my little domestic shredder. Homemade Chippings made from Conifers using a domestic shredder don’t look so nice and aren’t so woody as those made using a big Chipper like those that tree surgeons use because you can’t chip all of the thicker branches. However, they still provide an excellent way of both disposing of, and actually putting to good use an otherwise waste product. Paths made from them do need resurfacing regularly as soil and dirt in general builds up on them. This can easily be done with any prunings that you periodically get from your trees. The Wood Chip that I ended up using for my garden paths came from work where we had been shredding a very overgrown Hawthorn Tree.

A path on the right hand side was in need of relaying as it was about as straight a Dogs hind leg. This meant taking out a little bit of Crazy Paving and building up the levels a bit. However, a lot more Rubble and excess slabs was the end result so that all went down to my mates Allotment in my special motorised Wheelbarrow, (my Panda Car!) One side of the Garden has been cleared of the dreaded Conifers, but I can't really take many more out now because the birds are nesting in them! Will have to wait until the Autumn I guess for most of them. 

The The picture on the right shows the same corner of the garden after a little work, with the path tidied up, a big conifer root taken out and the corner dug and planted. A pretty variegated Holly has gone into the corner so that when it gets bigger it will provide a bit of screening from the garden behind and being evergreen that will be permanent cover all year round. Next to it is planted a Red Hazel and another variegated Holly along with a Twisted Willow, Mountain PawPaw and Red Sambucus, or Elderberry, further down the path. The little Trees that I have planted aren't very impressive yet, because they still haven't leafed up, but hopefully they will have all season to settle in before the winter comes round again. The whole bed on the right hand side of the garden is pretty much in shade most of the day so I have under-planted the trees with several different Ferns, a Hosta, Ajuga and Houttynia all of which will tolerate some shade.

 

Clearing More Conifers.

 

From the next Picture you will see that I have started work on the end of the garden where two big Conifers were. With a lot of effort my friend and I managed to cut down and shred both the smaller and much bigger one. The roots took some getting out, but it is surprising how little roots Conifers really have when you start digging around them.

 

 

The Conifer on the left was soon replaced by an edible, fruiting, Quince which also has attractive flowers, but it is the fruits that you really grow it for. The rock hard fruits make a nice addition to cooked Apple in pies, or crumbles and soften when cooked. Quince fruits are aromatic with a perfume like scent that brings out the flavour of the Apples, or you can eat the fruits simply stewed as well.


 

 

At this stage all that remains of the large Conifer is a bare trunk after it has been massacred and you can see the huge pile of branches that were cut from it!
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