Surveying the Garden Centre

We took a trip to Longacres today. I've lived in my house for 16 months and only recently decided to tackle the garden!

I say tackle, there's not really so much to do. I have a nice sized lawn that gets mowed by the gardeners (thanks Mum and Dad!), a small patio, and some beds that just need a bit of TLC. On closer inspection, the clematis that has been attached to a trellis is confirmed to be dead, which just leaves an unsightly bush under the window that I think has had its day. My sister suggested getting some plants and then filling the beds with bark to make it look tidy.

We took Ro and Little B with us, and they waited outside while we shopped. Well, it was one of the best days of the year weather-wise, so every man and his brother had also ventured out to the garden centre! It was so busy, we just chose some geraniums and pansies as quickly as possible, grabbed two large things of bark, and high-tailed it out of there. Well, as fast as we could with a heavily-laden and difficult to steer trolley!

We rewarded ourselves with ice-cream, and Little B was perched in the child's part of the trolley. I think he rather enjoyed it, not least because he was within licking's reach of the ice-cream! He managed to sneak a few mouthfuls while we were distracted.

Finally summoned the energy to do the actual job and it was much harder than I thought! In my haste to get it done quickly I went about it in a rather manic fashion, and attacked the bush singlehandedly. This thing was in fact so monstrous and so well rooted in the soil, that it was like the Enormous Turnip! I had to jump up and down on it, and use the secateurs to extract it. It was like removing a tumour. Little R came round to help once all the donkey work was done, and helped with the planting and barking.

I am sort of pleased with it, but I also think it looks a little sparse. My gut feeling is that it may need to be professionally done. I'm no gardener, that's for sure!