St Valentine's Day - part two

 

I should only have eaten half of that Cornish Pasty ...but it was delicious .

So I spent the afternoon working it off !

Click to enlarge . So I am still trying to get this large sloping bank area of the garden under control.

Over the years , I have always worked from one side to the other and do as much as I can before the birds begin nesting . Very often I only got about half way . Then I had a couple of years out due to health and the big op .Then I developed repeat strain injury on my elbow and had to stop using the loppers for a while to rest my elbow and last May I broke two toes . I am back in good health at the moment and making the most of it .

I think I have gone through about six basic lopping tools since we first came here and two really expensive ratchet lopping tools . I don't think I could keep this bank under control without loppers . 

Tomorrow , if I can get out of bed and not aching too much  , I will get up there again with the fork and dig out as many bramble roots as I possibly can .

I still have a lot to do . Another reason being that the Azaleas and Rhododendrons are about to come into bloom and the two lovely Acers are about to unfurl their beautiful leaves .

I have had this little Acer for over twenty years I have no idea of it's name , but it seems to be a smaller , weeping type and gorgeous in the Autumn .  I try to keep the earth around it clear of weeds . I need to cut back that Choisya more drastically .

Up behind these bushes was another Acer that was not earning it's keep and so I cut it down and actually that was the second one that I planted in the same spot and then took out when it began to grow into a horrible monster with huge yellow leaves .

I have yet another waiting in the wings . It has beautiful red leaves . I will plant it out next Autumn .

At the other end of the bank I planted yet another Acer with red leaves . I wish I had planted it a bit further back . I thought about transplanting it . It is hard to imagine the sweet little £2.50 Acer in a 4" pot from Morrison's , ever becoming such a tall elegant beauty in such a short space of time . This one is only five or six years old .

Anyway I decided that I could get away with it and that I would leave it there , but I really need to prune down that large green bush , a Buddleia , an old and rubbish variety of Forsythia and a flaming nuisance Sloe tree that are blocking the light and forcing the Acer to grow leaning towards the drive .

That is such a problem area up there . The fence has fallen down and some really heavy branches on top of it . 

I can do it and I will do it , but I have to pace myself and do it in small chunks .

Crinodendron hookerianum and a lovely red Callistemon had also to be cut back very severely .They will come back and I will be able to manage them at a more sensible height . The Callistemon probably won't flower this year because I have pruned it at the wrong time , but that should now become much bushier and will have even more flowers next year . 

So , back at the other end of this bed  , I have to clear the wall of all the Ivy , to give the lovely wild Soapwort a fighting chance . Then there is the gorgeous Gunnera manicata which is just dormant at the moment . There is a little yellow fir tree which is now so badly out of shape that has to go , to be replaced with something better and more exciting ! Behind it is a lovely variegated Pittosporum which is covered in Clematis montana . I have already lopped the stems . I will drag it all out in the next few days and , if the wind is blowing the right direction , we will have a bonfire . 

       I am aching after doing this , but , it's taking away other worries on my mind .

I have Comfrey balm and Arnica Massage Balm and lovely Dr Teals Epsom Salts with Lavender .

Let me know your favourite lotions and potions for muscle aches and joint pains .