Stumpery to Shrubbery

 28th June 2023

Having cleared the first part to the left of the stumpery in order to place Phoebe and the tree fern, I am now continuing with that section, heading towards the shrubbery. The shrubbery marks the end of the side garden.

I cleared a load more weeds and 'discovered' some plants I had forgotten about. The aucuba I knew was there. The hydrangea I also knew was there - it even flowered last year, despite being stuck in the middle of a weed patch and almost underneath the aucuba (I have a bad habit of planting things too closely, without taking into consideration height and spread). There's what I think is a spirea too, and a lavatera. The lavatera has fallen over to the left rather seriously but is in full bud. Until I started getting the brambles out, I couldn't see it at all and had completely forgotten it was there. I've forgotten the spirea so much that even seeing it I can't remember planting it

So this time, I only *almost* forgot to take pictures. The first picture shows the pile of weeds taken from round the back of the tree and stumpery. The modern urn features a few times before it finally finds a home!

Next is the aucuba, half hidden in the undergrowth:

This is the section beyond the aucuba. At this stage, it was, as far as I could tell, all brambles and ivy 

A view showing the full extent of the 'jungle' from the stumpery to the shrubbery, which is just out of shot to the left

While clearing the area, the urn got moved along a bit and is now sitting on the lawn, still waiting for a new home. (If you remember, it was in the middle of what is now the stumpery, looking rather sorry for itself).

Cleared all around the aucuba, which is when I found the plants mentioned above

Now you can see it properly, it really is an aucuba and is doing very well, despite not exactly having had optimal conditions!

The hydrangea is lying over to the left, but still growing...

...it even looks like it is going to flower 😘

Just behind the urn you can see a floppy looking plant. That's a centaurea that I salvaged from my Dad's garden, where it had been strimmed to within an inch of its life by a helpful neighbour lol. It is floppy here because it's past its best - the flowers have been and gone. I staked it after this and tied it upright so that I could clear the weeds from underneath it.

The lavatera - also leaning over....

...but absolutely full of buds ready to flower:

What I think might be a spirea:

I filled a cubic meter sack full of weeds taken just from that small-ish section:

That's enough work for one day!

Having cleared the first part to the left of the stumpery in order to place Phoebe and the tree fern, I have now gone a bit further. This first foray into the jungle is simply removing the weeds - digging out their roots will come later.

found a hypericum, a rose bush and a choisya I didn't know were there, lol. Taken out lots of brambles amongst other things. Won't be able to remove the gooseberry bush though, because it's growing in the roots of a tree. And thinking of trees, there are about 5 self-seeded silver birch saplings growing in there too