It's A Jungle Out There

For once, I'm not talking about the workplace, I'm talking about our back garden.  After months of neglect on my part, it's looking like a jungle.

There were cobwebs everywhere, rampant blight on the tomato plants, dying bean poles and overgrown fruit trees and shrubs facing me every time I ventured out into it. Something had to be done.

On Saturday OH and I decided that the job was long overdue and got stuck in clearing the mess. The raised beds were stripped of all the blighted tomato plants and dying beans.  That made a big difference.  I set to pruning the fruit trees and shrubs back a bit. I say a bit, but I was my usual brutal self once I got the loppers and pruning shears in my hands.  I left the sunflowers in situ, as they were still gloriously in bloom, but that was about it.  Everything else got the chop. The only things I didn't manage were the very tall branches that required a step ladder to reach.  I'll get these another day.

The blackcurrant bush outside the back door was pruned right back and looked a lot better for it, the green house was cleared of more blighted tomato plants and the boxes into which I'd intended to sow more salad were emptied and taken to the tip, freeing up more space on the decking. I've decided that less is much better, especially when I'm not putting the containers to good use.  The soil in them was thrown into the raised beds, so didn't go to waste.

I harvested the overgrown rhubarb and made some crumbles with it, pruned the gooseberry bush and then tackled the orange blossom, whose branches were reaching high up into the sky. There's still more to do on this bush, but I made as start.

The blueberry bush which was looking pretty desperate and whose soil was covered with moss, was re-potted into new ericaceous compost that I got from the garden centre,  and into a new larger pot and the decking was swept and moss removed.  It's starting to rot in places now, so isn't in great condition.  We were leaving it for when we did the kitchen extension, but now that isn't going ahead, we might have to replace it or repair it.

I almost can't believe how neglected the garden had become.  I had such good intentions at the beginning of the season, but life happens and things don't always pan out as you expect I guess. Working out there, I realised how much I'd missed doing garden jobs over the summer. There's something so satisfying about getting it how you want it.

Anyway, here's the results of our efforts:

Back under control again. It felt good to get out there and reclaim it for ourselves once again.