After all the heavy rain on Monday, I was keen to get into the garden and remove some plants. The first victims were Verbena bonariensis which were/are looking bedraggled and dank. There’s a lot of them and but the end of that session I had pulled out two trolleys worth.

But then I came to a place where some Persicaria ‘Red Dragon’ were which had not been happy since being planted about 4 years ago. At the same time I took a dislike to some planting under a rose. The reason this bit of planting wasn’t working is due to the two established clumps of Stachys on either side. So, I dug up the Persicaria and dumped the plants then added some compost before digging up the aster and a ground cover plant to put in the newly created gap. Then I used that gap under the rose to add in more lamb’s ears to make a more continuous line of the same thing. It does look much better.

That was yesterday. Today I started off pulling up more verbena but then got distracted by two things. The first was a miscanthus which has been dwindling for the last few years and looked rather a waste of space. I dug that up and moved a Nandina which is getting a reprieve, just hope it starts to grow well or that will get put on the bonfire. Across the way is a good clump of some sedums. To try to give some balance in that border I dug one plant up, divided it than planted it slightly further along that bed. I’m toying with the idea of removing the solomon’s seal which is in the same bed and putting more sedum there as well. One thing always leads to another…..there was the kniphofia which had couch grass growing in it so I dug that up and teased out the white roots before replanting it. My beady eye caught sight of several bramble seedlings which are now on the bonfire pile.

The days may be short at this time of year but I do like gardening now mainly, I suspect, because I can get my head down and think things through without any interruptions. Who knows what will get dug up tomorrow?