What we now term the Pond Bed runs along the Kitchen Path to the
Patio Bed. During the last few days, Jackie has been planting such as these primulas in this stretch of ground.
These images show part of the rim of the rocky water feature that lay buried beneath this area when we bought the house 11 years ago. What we hadn’t realised, and Jackie had now discovered, was that many of the rocks had joined rather thin soil in filling the large sculptured pond. This is clearly why nothing of any depth has satisfactorily grown there. The Head Gardener had managed to prise out a few of these rough-hewn slabs of stone, but had to leave most of them for Martin to tackle today.
Our friend has recycled the stone to strengthen the walls around the beds and to create a footpath through the pond one.
He cleared up the refuse and tipped some of the sifted soil into the bed which he
then levelled off with more redistributed earth and compost.
Before lunch I took another poles practicing walk down Downton Lane.
I spent the afternoon reading enough of ‘Devices and Desires’ for the end to be in sight.
This evening we dined on second helpings of yesterday’s spicy merguez casserole boosted by the addition of Ferndene Farm Shop pork and garlic sausages and fresh vegetables, with which Jackie drank Diet Coke and I finished the Shiraz.
