my mission today

was to finish the garden on the side of the house.

i have been meaning to do it for a while but life and weather have stopped me.

today i had NOOOOOOO excuse :>

here are the before shots with trees and bushes touching the house and it all over grown and full of weeds and dead flowers on the hydrangas. the path was full of dead and decaying stuff and leaves and leaves and leaves and blossom and general crap.

 so after a couple of hours in the garden and help from my kids (oh yeah that was so good-NOT!)

i have managed to get walking space down the side of the house without brushing aside plants or poking eyes out with tree branches. I do still need to get the tall man to get on a ladder and give the tops of the trees a haircut but that can wait for another day :>

 look! you can walk down the path!

clearing the ferns was a mission. they had stretched themselves out quite a bit and i had to clear them off 2 paving stones widths . I kept the plants i took out plus all the bulbs to put in other parts of the garden that have big trees and bushes and need some ground cover. I also kept some hydranga branches to replant in the garden seeing they needed a huge prune too

 i can now walk past the hot water cylinder

(yes we have them on the outside here in oz-that will be a bit weird for you kiwis reading this!)

 this is where i transplanted some of the fern shoots. i'd quite like them to cover this barked area under the bushes so i don't have to weed it quite so much :>

on a side note i have this beautiful plant in my garden. right now it smells divine-a lemony smell-and it permeates the garden and i get a lovely waft of it every time i wander out the front door. i don't know what it is...can anyone help me please?

well that's me done for today.

my next project is the letterbox.

the grass always comes around it and it is a pain to weed.

i am thinking a cover of weed mat and new bark may be in order

cheers ears