The Keepers and the Weepers

The work in overhauling the garden has been continuing, and I'm incredibly happy with how everything looks now. I've been very ruthless and many spots are now plantless, but I think it will be worth it come next year.

Plenty of plants have been given the heave ho, including an extraordinary amount of Sedums and Hardy Geraniums. I think these were plants that I realised I could propagate very easily, and over the years I got just a little carried away with them. No tiny garden needs 15 of the same Sedums, especially ones that were flopping all over the place! As for the Hardy Geraniums, well, as much as I love them, I had one variety that was in about 5 different places, gets huge leaves during the summer and swamps everything else in its path, the flowers are beautiful though so I've kept one, but, after an awful lot of back breaking digging, got rid of the others.  I swear if a clump any larger than my fist came up I let out an almighty cheer, the roots were tough and I have a feeling I didn't get to them all so I'll have to keep a watch on the areas to ensure they don't come back. I do have plenty of smaller growing Hardy Geraniums dotted around which are a bit more manageable.

I've kept a few of the Sedums at the back where they look their best, and for now, I'm leaving one in front of the shed and this one along the border.

They'll be going as soon as I have something to replace them with though. Next year, I'll be giving the remaining Sedums the Chelsea Chop again, but I'll reduce them by half this time, as cutting down by a third didn't work. Another good reason to clear out many of these plants was the enormous amount of snails and slugs they were hiding. Nearly every leaf had one or the other on it, and plenty down at the base of the plant too. I have definitely seen an overall reduction of them in the garden now there aren't as many places for them to hide!

The woodland area and front of shed border have had a tidy up, but most of the work has taken place at the far end of the garden which had started to resemble a mini jungle. Plants were crowding each other out, there were straggly Crocosmias all over and things weren't looking that great. These are the befores.

And the afters. Much better I think. 

I've moved a lot of plants from other parts of the garden, and added in some new ones, including the gorgeous Shasta Daisies, Echinacea Pow Wow, Cherry Brandy Rudbeckias and Chrysanthemums, these are the definite keepers, they have added so much colour to the borders and I can't wait to see how they look next year when they've had a chance to grow. There are lots of other Spring flowering plants dotted in, and some spaces ready for bulbs and plants I'm growing on.

And, you may or may not have noticed that the blog has had a bit of a name change. I'm now Blooms 'n' Spades rather than Spoons 'n' Spades! It's something I've been meaning to do for a while to reflect the fact I no longer grow food for eating. I like it, hope you do too :-) .