"Ungardening" continues

Back in London I'm now seriously into garden removal rather than creation... to make space for the conservatory we plan to build in the autumn. As I'll be spending five weeks in France this summer, time is short for the preparation I need to do in London. Despite being told about the bad weather here whilst I was away, I returned to find quite a few of my plants - particularly the strawberries I'd grown from runners - had expired, by the look of them from lack of water!

This week I've laid my first bit of paving - just a small area, but a lot of work involved! The objective was to make room for a storage box which used to be kept where one of the conservatory walls will go. The task involved first cleaning and clearing the area, then levelling, tamping down, laying sand - before the paviors could be laid. Clearing the area meant sacrificing one of my three redcurrant bushes, and another will have to go later. I've had to start lifting paviors too from the paths which will disappear into the conservatory, in order to build the new areas. Instead of two storage boxes at opposite ends of the garden, I now have them next to each other on the newly-extended piece of paving. Clearing them out and cleaning them revealed a lot of duplicated garden chemicals, and a huge store of seed trays and plant pots, very few of which I ever use. So ... to freecycle they went! I am pleased that they have gone to a local community garden project. They've also had (for repair) my old garden fork - the handle of which snapped in two while I was digging out the redcurrant bush!

Before and after - looking west

Before and after - looking east

The attempt to layer the loganberry to produce a new plant has failed; while I was away it grew very rapidly and got top-heavy, then pulled out of the compost so has failed to root. It's too late in the season to do anything about it now, so I've decided not to waste time trying any more transplanting or rooting existing stock - I will buy new plants instead. This applies to the loganberry and bay tree; potentially also the blackberry, although there is one blackberry plant which may be rooted far enough outside the planned building to survive. I think the myrtle will just have to go; it's too big a plant for what will be left of the garden. Perhaps I'll replace it with a dwarf variety which could go in the high planter.

Here's how the back garden looks at the moment:

Still a long way to go!

Agrumes

Very sad lemon

Kumquat

Before returning to London I wanted to give my citrus trees - all badly damaged a few years ago by exceptionally cold weather - a bit of a chance. The lime tree had been completely lost but all the others (orange, lemon and kumquat) had sprouted again after the affected wood had been cut out. Sadly only the orange had shown any serious signs of recovery. Both the lemon (in a large terracotta pot) and the kumquat (in open ground) had very spindly growth and few leaves. They are being given another chance but if they don't perk up this year they may be completely replaced. To start with the weeds have been cleared away, specific fertiliser applied (instructions say it should be given weekly; this can't be done in view of the time spent away, but it will be applied as often as possible), and - for the kumquat only so far - top dressing with compost from our compost maker has been added.

At least the orange tree looks healthy

Last year for my 60th birthday I was given a garden centre voucher, and one of the plants I bought with it was a blue hydrangea. This year it is once again covered with flowers, but they are beginning to look slightly more purple than blue, so I've bought a product specifically for blue hydrangeas, and begun to apply it. It's a bit late in the season really, though - should have been applied earlier. The recommendation is to stop the application in July and August then start again in September - I'll try to remember to do that!

Not-quite-so-blue hydrangea

RIP Punica granatum?

Just before I returned to France this month I received a sad email from my neighbour, telling me that my pomegranate tree had been destroyed in exceptionally high winds. It wasn't the first time that wind had damaged it, so I was hopeful that it might be possible to once more pull it back into position and strengthen its support. Unfortunately that was out of the question, as it had not been bent but completely broken off, and the supporting stake too. After under five years the tree had established itself as a beauty in spring (covered in bright orange/red flowers) and an excellent fruit source in autumn - kilos of fruit were processed last year. So it was very disappointing that the first garden task this June was to chop up and remove the old tree then see what could be done about replacing it.

My RHS "bible" tells me that a sucker can be trained on as a replacement for a main shoot... so that's what I will try. There are several suckers coming up so the roots are still active. This time it will get more support than it originally had! I've also removed all the bulbs which were planted around it, and replanted them in tubs instead. Let's give it as much chance as we can... soon I'll select the best shoot and remove the others, then get some fertiliser on it.