I've been doing quite a bit of work in the garden the last week, mainly digging out compost from the big heap. Some of this stuff has been sitting there for years and is almost black. It looks good and I hope it's not full of weed seeds, although it probably is.
I have a lot of new perennial plants for the garden, largely trees and hedging (you can see a list here) and ordering is so easy but when I see them all laid out in front of me, the task seems bigger. Everything was put straight into pots but I don't want to wait long before I get everything in the ground. I want most things to go into our existing hedgerow which is between us and our neighbour. The hedgerow is a mix of planted trees and shrubs, wild plants and brambles and dead trees. I want to mix in the new plants, without creating too much disturbance. Even though some of the trees are snags (standing dead trees) and it's very overgrown, it is a fantastic habitat for birds and insects and hopefully small mammals (a hedgehog was spotted in the garden). So my dilemma is how to insert new plants and allow them to compete with the existing growth. I'll figure it out.
What I have done is made a new bed for my strawberry plants using my own compost and stones from the garden, laid over sheets of cardboard. I actually extended it after this photo was taken thinking my 10 plants could use more space. I've also put straw on top. The reasoning behind the stones is that they will absorb heat during the day and radiate it at night, keeping the plants a bit warmer than if there were no stones!
I'll put in the plants in a week or two.
Today I planted my raspberry canes (Glen Ample - summer fruiting) in a new area that I previously prepared using cardboard and my own compost.
I have 10 canes. In the garage are long pieces of wood waiting to be cut and built into a support frame and hopefully I'll be updating this post with a photo of the installed support next week! And photos of the strawberries in situ.
