Garden Journal - Tidying a Neglected Corner of the Garden (and Cat Antics)

If there's one part of our garden that gets neglected the most, it's the far end, to the left of the pond.

Now our tree surgeon has trimmed the large bush that overshadowed the whole area, I decided I really should sort the rest of that section out.

The two photos below show the "before" state;

It's basically a long, narrow flowerbed up against the fence, that has become a bit of a dumping ground. There was a pampas grass bush growing there, but it had really got out of control so we cut it down earlier in the summer. Instead, we've got an assortment of buckets, plant pots, some good plants and a lot of weeds. Not to mention the wheelbarrow and (under the pampas grass cuttings) the bin from our old lawnmower.

We'd put all the stems from the grass into a bucket, with the idea of using them as canes to support plants next year. But the bucket filled with water, so that turned out to be a dumb idea.

Below is the remnants of the grass, which was already growing new shoots, together with the old tree of heaven that had died. Tree of heaven is a weird thing; it's almost indestructible. The original tree died, but it put up shoots and new trees sprang up. So far, I've kept the strongest of the shoots and it's well on the way to becoming a whole new tree. But I can't decide if I like it or not.

The first step was to clear away all the buckets and rubbish. Then I cut the grass stems right down to ground level.

Chester cat is sitting by the compost bin here, supervising what I was doing. Just to his left is the newly growing tree of heaven mark 2.

In the phot below, I've taken it a step further and dug out all the weeds. That was definitely the hardest work part of the whole process ! I've also got rid of most of the short grass stems I'd cut down. The rest have been scattered around and will happily compost down over a few years.

Finally, I added a deep layer of bark chips and put the trough of strawberries back after trimming off the runners. I'll need a few more bark chips for the end by the compost bin, I ran out by the time I got that far.

The bark chips should suppress weeds, as well as being good for the soil structure in the long term. Any weeds which do come through will be easy to spot and deal with before they get too strong.

The next job will be the annual tidy-up of the pond irises, and the area the other side of the pond. But that's a future-me job 😁

Meanwhile, Chester had disappeared for a bit, then came back and looked at me with his "I'm cute" face on.

I found out why he looked so pleased with himself later on when it came to dinner time for the cats.

The whole day's worth of his food had been measured out into a tub with the lid on, hidden on top of and at the back of the kitchen counter, hidden and protected (so we thought) by having a nice heavy tray of Ferrero Rocher plonked on top. He's on a diet, because he's been getting a bit chunky.

Somehow the little so & so had got onto the counter, pushed the Ferrero off, got the lid off the tub and eaten the lot !