SPRING - A BUSY TIME OF YEAR

Spring is always busy.  Old vegetable beds to be cleared out and replanted, winter flowering plants to be cut back or removed.  Here, in the north of New Zealand, everything keeps on growing so we don't actually have a winter rest period.  Although the grass grows more slowly, it still grows and needs mowing and most plants keep on growing.

Apart from this general maintenance Doug decided that the edging of the flower bed along the drive needed replacing.  He built it in 2009 just after he moved here.  This is the flower bed earlier in the month before the old edging was removed.

This is the new edging.  Doug cuts each piece individually then nails them on to the backing timber in panels.

The following photos are of the garden a couple of weeks ago.

We then decided that the various creepers growing on the boundary fence needed removing and a new fence put in.  It was a fairly big job removing the creepers and we have a skip booked for tomorrow to take the rubbish away.  We got a quote for a new paling fence but as it was nearly twice as much as we expected, even allowing for the huge increase in the price of timber,  we have decided to build it ourselves. Fun times!!!

I had not taken a photo of the new edging so just took a couple which also show the old fence with all the creepers removed.  The garden looks a bit bare as we removed a few plants while clearing out the creepers.  Yesterday we planted various salvias, zinnias and petunias.  We got them in just in time for today's steady rain.