Non-Gardener builds an Observatory, Garden Railway and even Dabbles with Plants!

23rd~30th May 2025

Across May, there's been plenty of wildlife doing its thing in the garden, but the fox cubs have dominated the trailcam. Only seen the Hedgehog once and the rabbits a few times, but most of the action has been foxes.

While working in the garden, I also noticed little Bluetits poking out of the bird box, being fed regularly by the parents.



On Friday and Saturday, we began to tackle yards and yards of Laurel hedge! On Friday, we trimmed the hedge at both sides and the bottom of the lawn. The Japanese barberry also had a haircut. Once the hedges were cut and most of the clippings raked up, the lawn was mowed to cut the grass and pick up the rest of the leaf clippings.

After that, I planted the spare Phlox beside the Hawthorn hedge, replacing something that died. While there, I realised how much the Hawthorn had grown. I was too tired to give it the full works, so just clipped off the long spiky bits pointing towards the path, particularly at eye level.

Still to do in the back garden is the workshop section, the small hedge beside the back steps and the stretch around the back of the wood.

 

31st May 2025

We spent the morning of the 31st, tackling the front Laurel hedge. While a smaller length of hedge, it was still hard work as there were a number of quite thick branches that needed cutting lower as the hedge trimmers couldn't cut through them. Most of the morning was gone but the time it was cut and the mess cleaned up.

After that, I planted out my one surviving Lupin at the railway. It was moved into a larger pot perhaps a month ago, but the tap root was already at the bottom of the pot, so I decided it was time to plant it out. Last year's Lupin has a number of flowers on it which have just started to flush up with colour in the last few days.



I've not managed any more grass clearing at the back of the wood, though the Thyme we planted seems to be doing okay on the cleared area. The small wooden sticks marking the Anemones seem to be a frequent target of the rabbits and I often find several that have been pulled or dug out! I'm guessing the rabbits are also responsible for nibbling the Achillea, but despite what I read online, they seem to be ignoring the Hollyhocks.

While looking through my progress pictures, I noticed just how fast the bottom of the wood has gone from being very bare to fairly well enclosed in just two months.

 

2nd~5th June 2025

On the 2nd of June, I began to clear out the slates from the small border by the lower patio. Once the slates were all out, I dug out a tree stump, which I think was from a spiral shaped Yew, which had been cut down before we moved in. Lots of weeding followed, removing grass and Geranium roots, plus digging out the Montbretia. That has been transplanted into some buckets, for possible use elsewhere.



On the 5th, I was doing some general tidying, including chopping back the Creeping Jenny, which was advancing across the garage path. Many of the cuttings are now in pots of water, growing roots. I'm slowly planting them under the Hawthorn hedge, to suppress the nettles and other weeds. I'd rather be trimming excess Jenny on this side of the hedge, rather than nettles.

I also began raking the driveway gravel away from the lawn, followed by more weeding and grass removal. I laid out some of the concrete edging along the line it will be laid in, showing that I need to cut out some lawn and also some of the original tarmac driveway for the edging foundations.

The last job was to plant all the Daisy pomponettes at the back of the wood. There's no signs of the Anemones yet, so at least the daisies will give some greenery, flowers and reduce soil erosion, which other stuff gets established. A few salvaged Rose campion and some other odds and ends were planted at various points through the wood, but mostly around the back and where this path enters the wood.

 

7th June 2025

Another garden centre trip yesterday, brought three more plants for the front of the slate area I cleared. I also got the peach Dame Judi Dench rose planted; one grown from a cutting from another near by. I got the weed membrane cut and glued in place this morning, then the rain came and stopped the work, so the three flowers are still to plant, followed by re-filling the area with slate.



Throughout May, the trailcam was dominated by the foxes, particularly the fox cubs. Here's a compilation of captures across the month, including some cats, rabbits and hedgehog.

 

Hi,

You may want to hold back on planting the purple flowered Aubrieta as its a Spring flowering plant and its about to die back for most of the year, so you might want to select something else for summer colour ?

There are signs of brown down towards the crown already and now is the usual time to cut back all of the top growth to about 40mm, it will then over summer put out new compact growth ready for next springs flowering.

 

I know, I have them in the railway. It's all being planted for next year.

 

8/9th June 2025

Yesterday morning, there were a few hours forecast without rain. My neighbour's tractor hedge cutter is broken, so we had to cut the 100 feet of hawthorn by hand. Lynne used the small electric trimmer on the inside face, while I stood on a stool with the long arm petrol trimmer to cut the top. After that, I went park side and gave that a trim. Despite that being on the sunny side, it didn't need as much trimming.

This morning, I got the three new plants into the patio border. The slates that came out were only enough for a thin covering, so I needed more. We had four half ton bulk bags, each partially filled with slate from the wood. Each had been filled just light enough to drag on my own, so I pulled one to the front of the trailer and tipped it out on the concrete in front of the trailer.

All the slates were dirty with soil and roots, scraped out of the wood, plus a large number of pine seeds and needed washing with a hose. As small piles were washed, I picked out the slates one at a time, leaving the dirt and roots behind. It took a while, but I finally got them all cleaned and spread into the border by 1pm. The rain came soon after, so that was the end of the work outside.

 

That's looking good.

I'm thinking of doing much the same for a narrow strip of ground under a fence in what I grandly call our courtyard. I could stand a few pots on the slates with tall plants I could see from the kitchen windowsill. I've used that purple slate for a square and path leading from it in the back garden

 

Well done @ArmyAirForce, I have enjoyed following you making your patio borders from start to completion. You and Lynne work so hard! I particularly liked your use of 'log edging' retainers.

 

Thanks, I'm pleased this area is done now, bar grass thickening up, but there's still a long way to go yet! I think I've laid about one third of the stones so far. The rest are for the lawn/drive joint and around the front of the woodland. That will stop the lawn from creeping into the wood and the woodland slates spilling out onto the lawn.

Where the pathways go into the wood, I'm going to have to lower the stones or lay them flat, so the hedgehogs can get about the garden unhindered. I was concerned we wouldn't see hedgehogs any more, after my neighbour put kerb stones all along his driveway beside the wood. Thankfully, they still find a way in.

 

10th/11th June 2025

Canterbury Bells. Planted as seed in April 2024, we've had to wait a little over a year for these biennial plants to flower. Now that they are, it was worth the wait. Deep purple, three shades of pink and white have bloomed so far. Spotted on the way out on the evening of the 11th, was a large bee, exploring every bloom.



Over the 10th and 11th, I also started excavating the lawn/drive interface, ready for the new edging. Grass and gravel were spreading both ways. A straight edge was cut in the grass first, then I started digging through a mix of soil, gravel and roots; both grass and laurel.

The gravel and soil was sieved, with the gravel dumped on the drive and the soil dumped in the back of the railway, where I want to build up the depth under the conifer.

 

12th June 2025

More digging today. The depth was increased, uncovering part of the old Victorian school in the process. I wanted a reasonable depth of foundation and concrete, so I could drive over them once installed. I have plans to drive the Dodge to the bottom of the garden at some point, to stand in the back with the extended trimmer, and prune the tree near the trampoline. After I finished digging, I smashed up a load of old bricks into the bottom of the hole to act as the hardcore below the concrete. I plan to bring the concrete up to about lawn height, so that when I add the log edging on a mortar bed, the edging will stand above the lawn and gravel.



Some of the bricks for the foundation, came from the bottom of the woodland. Amongst them were several lumps of sand stone, a few being around four to six inches in length. Having failed to find anything similar at garden centres, I used them around the pond, to stop the birds digging up the soil. I could still do with some larger ones, to replace the small stones, which are probably light enough for the large birds to move.

Also down at the bottom of the wood, I planted out several more Creeping thyme plants, grown from cuttings and a couple more Achillea. The Thyme is starting to fill out, but some of the plants will need a prune to tidy them up, particularly those close to the stepping stones. Still no sign of the Anemones coming through, which were meant to flower in the Summer if planted in the Spring. Despite frequent watering, the Spring may have been too dry to get them going, despite a 24 hour soak before planting.

 

14th June 2025

A spur of the moment trip to a couple of garden centres resulted in us coming back with two six packs of Osteospermum. We saw lots of these in Jersey at the start of May and after spotting some in the neighbour's garden, thought they would be nice in the edge of the patio.

We aren't planting them until the Canterbury bells are dying off, put I transferred them into larger pots in the mean time. We also got a Campanula to go in the railway, to provide some colour in the area of the Aubrieta which is fading away now.



We often look after the neighbour's green house and veggie plot when they go away and he's often said for us to help ourselves to anything that's ready. I'd noticed several large chunks of sandstone buried under and around trees in his garden and wondered if the offer extended to non-edible stuff in his garden!

The sandstone would be ideal to cut up into smaller chunks to go around the mini pond. A quick Whatsapp message to confirm the precise meaning of "help ourselves to anything", confirmed I could grab a stone, so I came back with this one. The plan is to split the stone in half ( halving the thickness ), then cutting into suitable chunks. After a little shaping with a grinder, I might put them in the cement mixer with a little gravel and water and wear down the fresh cut marks.

 

15th June 2025 - Father's Day

Father's day began with some presents - two Jeep plant pots. Cute though they were, the incorrect star on the hood would need changing!

For the rest of the morning, I tamped down the brick hardcore, followed by concreting the drive/lawn edge foundation. A garden centre trip followed that, looking for two plants for the Jeeps and also a slim-line water butt, to go in front of the right hand pillar of the garage.

Late afternoon, we went to the coast at Roker, as there had been a pod of Dolphins seen there over several days, between the piers of the harbour. We did see some, but they didn't come further into the harbour as they have done over past days.



16th June 2025

Today began with the water butt. The driveway in front of the garage pillar slopes down towards the trailer parking area. I cut some wooden forms to allow me to pour a level concrete base for the water butt. The existing concrete was painted with PVA first, to help the new concrete to bond, then it was mixed, poured and levelled.

 

The concrete lawn edging was next, mixing up several batches of mortar to lay all the stones. Three were full length, with the one nearest the steps being cut to fit. It was a very warm day, so after all the stones were laid, I covered them over with old towels, and wetted the towels with the hose to try and keep the stones cooler and to keep the moisture in so the mortar wouldn't cure too fast.



With the edging done, I turned my attention to the large lump of sandstone, liberated from my neighbour's garden. Since I had the grinder out with the diamond cutting disc, it made sense to cut up the stone. It was split in thickness first, then the two slices were cut further into smaller pieces. They were then placed in the cement mixer, with a load of gravel and some water and left to tumble.

This tumbling took all the harsh cuts off the stones, as can be seen in the wheelbarrow picture. While they are all a bit clean right now, they will weather naturally in the wood.

I stopped for lunch and then went back out, to dig out the old stones and fit the old and new stones around the pond. The stones immediately next to the pond are the largest and heaviest and so should be too big for the birds to move.



The last job of the day was repainting the Jeeps. The star was corrected, headlights changed from yellow to silver, the engraved star on the bumper was painted. The axe and shovel on the left side were painted, followed by painting the windscreen light grey, rather than the light blue it had been. I did a few touch ups on the wheels and tyres, where the original paintwork had been slopped over the edges. The final detail was to paint the Jeep names on - Jessie and Hope.