The Long Border - Part 1

Spring is here!  It's official; yesterday, on a walk into town, we spotted these little celandines positively shining in the undergrowth:

Every year I look out for my first celandine as a sign that Winter is ending and Spring is here.  Those gleaming little flowers always put a smile on my face.

The Long Border in it's original state

We have been in the garden today, working on the 'Long Border', which sounds rather grand and the truth is that this strip of garden by the fence is anything but.  Uninspiring is the word that best described it.  It is very narrow, for starters, has been planted up with an odd assortment of shrubs, and the soil has been covered over with weed-suppressant and finished of with mauve slate chippings.  The shrubs have been a bit neglected and were getting very straggly and the whole border was in desperate need of a radical overhaul.  

We've cleared the slate chippings (washed and bagged, to be used elsewhere in the garden) and got rid of the weed-suppressant.  As for the shrubs, well, I began with some judicious pruning, but it didn't take me long to realise that a slightly more drastic plan was called for.  

There's not a great deal left of the original planting; sometimes it's better to dig it all out and start afresh, rather than trying to salvage everything.  It had all got so overgrown I hadn't noticed some clumps of grape hyacinths which we've left for the moment and in due course they will be lifted, split and replanted.  The same goes for a black ornamental grass that has formed some dense tussocks.  One or two of the better shrubs have been given a temporary reprieve but that may change later.

We are trying not to spend more than absolutely necessary on the garden and hope to use what is already here, together with cuttings and seeds we had, to spruce things up.  Mostly it just needs a bit of TLC - and a bit of time and effort, both of which we have.  Hopefully, in a few months' time, the garden will have a whole new look.