We’ve had a few nice dry days here in Yorkshire and I’ve managed to spend quite a few hours in the garden. It’s almost happy dance time for my AA garden…almost!

Last weekend I started marking out where my raised beds would be and ordered some split log rolls. I managed to find some in 2.4m lengths and worked out I needed about six rolls. It arrived on Tuesday so this weekend I’ve been planting log rolls!! These are 12″ high, so I had to dig a trench about 5″ deep, hammer it in a bit further with a mallet and then firm down the soil at the front, hoping this would give it enough stability to cope with the weight of soil behind.

I found I could manage two lengths a day – it was hard work! Yesterday I managed to finish the last two lengths with just 12″ to spare, that’s pretty good measuring!  It’s not perfect, as you can see the top edge is somewhat undulating, if anyone comments, it’s undulating to represent the landscape around us!!! By the time it’s planted up it will hardly be visible, lets face it, how much of the split log edge do you actually notice around the pond area?

I think my OH might have a go with the mallet to get it a bit more level. However I’m pretty pleased with myself for managing to do it all, my original plan was to get some younger muscles to help but it just didn’t quite work out and I just kept going. At least having done all the preparation work myself I know I’ve cleared as many perennial weed roots as I could, whatever comes up now will just have to be zapped with weedkiller. I’m putting two layers of weed membrane down, it’s in a 1m wide roll and I suddenly had the bright idea of using my sewing machine to stitch the lengths together, rather than overlapping them which gives an easy route through for weeds!

This rudbekia has spent the summer down by the conservatory, bringing a bit of sunshine to the area, once it finishes flowering I’ll move it back up to the AA garden.

Another plant in flower at the moment is a clematis,not a climbing one but a shrub, I bought it at the Harrogate Flower show a couple of years ago, it has unusual blue flowers twirling up the stem, it’s one of those plants that you forget about until it’s suddenly there and in flower.

I planted a continus coggygria a few years ago, it’s looking beautiful but I always find it really hard to photograph, it always looks dull, but when the light gets behind those wine leaves it is beautiful. I’ve got a limegreen one in the front garden too which always looks stunning.

This week I’m hoping to get the pea shingle delivered so I can start the fun bit of planting up the AA garden. I’m putting an arch over the entrance and a seat with an arch in front of the hedge, so I’ll need lots of climbers such as clematis and honeysuckle. Nextdoor are making progress on their fence now so I’m starting to plan new shrubs and trees for the right hand border where a lilac and a philadelphus were removed, so all my gardening books are out to inspire me during coffee breaks! At the moment I’m thinking of a Kalmia and a columnar flowering cherry amongst others!