Progress

Over the last week we've been making progress in the London garden when weather permitted. The steps down from the conservatory doors at least have their base constructed now, but progress upwards is now halted as the forecast is for continuous rain tomorrow.

While Mike has been mixing concrete and mortar, I have been concentrating on getting other parts of the garden dug, raked and planted... well, one other part anyway! We now have a herb border, containing a few plants we'd retained (rue, feverfew and chives), and many more bought on a trip to Ruxley Manor: lemon balm, hyssop, two different lavenders, two different oreganos, marjoram, thyme, angelica, sage, heartsease and tarragon. The bay tree and mint container haven't been placed yet. Interspersed through the other plants are some mustard seedlings which should provide some salad interest.

I'd planned to have the area under the fruit trees as a mini camomile lawn; now that I've levelled and dug over part of it I looked for plants, only to discover that I've missed the planting season so won't be able to establish that until next year.

Removals begin

So instead of being a "vague notion", the conservatory has become a definite plan for later this year. This means losing or moving some of my garden features, and a lot of its plants. Being reluctant to lose any, I'm now beginning to work out how to save as many as possible. The weather was kind to me this weekend, so a start has been made. The large area which used to be my herb garden (and strawberry patch) has been left to its own devices while we worked on the house, though I did make a start on clearing it in the autumn. Work has now been started in earnest - though as I'm off to France in three days' time there will be another three week hiatus!

The former herb garden after being left to its own devices!

The same view after this weekend's clearance work

Strawberries relocated

Only time will tell whether the moves have been successful, but so far I have "rescued" the following in addition to the rhubarb: crocus bulbs (moved into a planter in front of the kitchen window); two pelargonium plants which I thought had been killed by the bad weather, but which turned out to have signs of life at the base after all; my bergamot (moved into a large pot for now); about two-thirds of the plants from the strawberry patch (moved beneath the pergola); golden marjoram (moved into the low planter on the left of the garden, in turn necessitating the move of some "tumbling Ted" to the back of the garden); two wallflowers; two primulas (badly snail damaged)... but the old herb garden still has some way to go before it is cleared.