Our new cosy corner

We (Jodes) finished off another job in this afternoon's sunshine.

The area to the front left-hand-side of the house was a messy space, with old paving that had given way to weeds, with an ugly concrete wall to divide it from the front garden. After some carpentry-based help from Dad last weekend, we now have some neat wooden boards instead of the concrete wall, which we've finished off by painting it a smart black.

Finally, we re-planted some box hedging that was in the back garden, to give us a neat divider for the garden, and finished off the project with some golden shingle. We think it looks rather smart, and the area will certainly come into use for eating in the evenings now that the evenings are lighter, until we get our back patio back in working order.

A touch of frost

Our first big disappointment of the project hit this week. After a day of back-breaking work, and meticulous-bordering-on-obsessive watering by Jodes, our newly planted hedge has been beset by frost. The black leaves cut a decidedly unpalatable picture and we are (without wishing to exaggerate) verging on heartbroken.

General opinion was that this was the wrong time of year to plant the hedge because the recent warm weather would make us a slave to the hose, but we failed to consider the silent killer around the corner that came in the shape of a ground frost on Tuesday night.

We're hoping the plants are fighting for life underneath the morbid leaves, and we will continue to look after them in the vain hope that some TLC will restore them to their previous (albeit 1 foot) glory. 

I'm sure your thoughts are with us - will keep you posted on the patients' progress...

Mr McGregor's row of cabbages

Having decided on a spotted laurel as the shrub for our hedge, we spent most of Friday putting 150 plants into the ground. It didn't take quite as much time as I had imagined - primarily because the 'trees' were only a foot high, and also due to the ground being so dry it was like planting in sand - no digging required.

So we now have what can only be described as a row of cabbages along the dividing line between our garden and the field next door - I'm expecting Peter Rabbit to hop along and swipe them all any minute...

A picture for comedy purposes:

Hedging our bets

Whilst things were quiet on the building front this week, Jodes got a bit excited and asked the builders to dig out the old hedge to the side of the house. So we're now down a hedge as well as a house!
We now need to make our mind up pretty quickly about what to put in its place, before we get overrun by pheasants and rabbits from the field next door.  

After much deliberation and advice, we've narrowed it down to 2 options - but can't quite decide. The criteria that has led us to these options is something fast-growing, evergreen, and not too expensive!

We love the red new shoots foliage of the Photinia, which would look stunning down the side of Dixies from the road, but it's a bit more 'woody' and less compact than our other option, which is a Laurel, or Spotted Laurel:

Photinia Red Robin, image from hedginguk.com

Spotted Laurel, image from hedginguk.com