Reflection on the year end

We started physical work on the project on 20 April. That now seems a long time ago. The garden does not look as different as I hoped but a lot of progress has been made. Several flower beds have been repeatedly weeded and the big one on the Festival Walk side has been heavily manured and is ready for planting in the spring. The rectangular pond and little Victorian grotto have been cleared and the wellhead sorted out. A good deal of work has been done on clearing the big raised bed along the back of the garden. I knew the clearance of this was going to take a long time; the bed has been overrun with snowberry and it will need repeated digging to get the roots out. It was this bed that produced the big surprise of the year: the discovery of a slowworm. I think they may be living in a very large and very rotten ivy-covered trunk of a fallen tree. I think this needs to stay in place so we will need to plant around it.
 
We have put bulbs in three of the beds so we should have some colour in the spring. I am hoping to continue clearance over the winter particularly on the back raised bed. However, the Covid situation is not looking good. Hopefully if there is a lockdown it won’t be as long as time. We will see.
 
Happy Christmas and New Year.