The Mitcheldean Garden 2023
The Gasmen Cometh

This page is part of a series of garden blogs from 2023. Click here for the index.

The bottom end of our road has been a mass of yellow boards around excavated holes for more than a month and at the moment the gang has reached our area. The two adjacent bungalows still had their original ductile iron pipes which means the area around them has been under attack. Mercifully, the indication is that in our case these were replaced when the extension was added so the garden is apparently and mercifully safe. Coincidentally Google Maps have updated our Streetview images, that on the left is from September 2009, on the right from April 2023 (It's not possible to get an exact match and I have not uploaded larger versions, easily obtained off the web):

Click on a picture for a larger version and click on that to return to this page.

This is why they have been digging. The ductile iron main has been declared a safety risk and a lining of medium density polyethene (MDPE) inserted, the smaller pipe is our domestic supply. As MDPE is a thermoplastic, the two pipes can be fused together using heat generated by an electric current in a surrounding copper coil. Overall the process has been carried out with commendable planning and implementation, the second picture shows the final backfilling after which the pedestrian footway will be restored. I dare say that owners (unlike us) who have had their gardens violated may think differently!

Since April, the view from the bottom has some extra colours. I've had to hone my reversing technique to get into our parking area. Of the many mistakes I've made in the garden, planting the camellias so they obstruct the 'normal' view of the rhododendrons was among the worst, but seen from above it's quite the reverse.

Each rhododendron has just a few days at its peak and necessarily it's different for each one. At the top, the hyacinths and tulips are long gone and they have been replaced by baby begonias, lobelia and last of all, snapdragons. As newcomers they require frequent watering, especially as we have have had no rain for weeks - the bonus for this apart from the sunshine is that the lawns don't get cut at all. The picture is misleading in that it shows a large proportion of other healthy roses, elsewhere they are 'failing' in large numbers.

Next door's greenhouse has been emptied of plants and will need occasional weeding to keep it clear. The bed in front has a mixture of 'lost label' dahlias; the middle part are 'pom poms', the rest distinctly lucky dip stuff. It's 10 years since we rescued the Albertine rose, the time has come to cut it back, fortunately Yuehong was happy to do a job which I hate. Most of the greenery at the moment comes from a clematis which has grabbed the opportunity...

The pansies came from Lidl, they got frustrated waiting for me to remove the hyacinths from 'their' tubs but it was vital to let them start to die back naturally. As usual, the patio is full, the brick red tubs are full of dahlias which are only starting to put their heads up. Not surprisingly, a lot of time is spent watering right now and going away for a weekend is a major logistics problem. The fact that such excursions are generally now beyond our budget should be good news for our plants.

I've spent quite some time extracting hyacinths and tulips which will go in store in the garage when they have dried out. Last year I skipped most of the 'leafing' as I had forgotten about the store in the old water butt behind the summer house. The theory is that they will act as a water store during what is becoming our annual 'dry season'.

I had two trenches to dig immediately in the former vegetable patch. This year, I had sufficient runner bean seeds from last year's crop which produced so many successful seedlings that I was able to donate the excess to #35 next door although they still haven't got to grips with their back garden.

Moving up, the irises and lupins are their reliable selves with some sweet rocket behind. Towering over them is our copper beech which so far I have trimmed only enough to make the picture possible. What we call a giant bluebell is, I believe, an agapanthus, it's beautiful but it doesn't last long.

We have lost our strange giant white clematis which used to stretch across our bedroom window but elsewhere, Yuehong's watering regime has worked wonders, no more so than this double clematis next to the summer house. At the top the purple rhododendron rules supreme, we keep cutting it back whereupon it simply grows back again before the smaller ones can claim the space. They started here in a medium large pot and are now more than 10 times their size then.

It's a less than attractive picture which nevertheless tells a story. These are our resting hyacinth bulbs and next to them are piles of earth from our returning moles. They had made a right old mess of our upper lawn while we were away, but decamped to #35 when we returned and started work again. Now they have started occasional gardening work on the other side, the moles have returned, probably because we have more worms. They are heading for our peony patch which has yet to be touched this year as it's also full of bluebells. What they don't know is that my next job is to cut it back so the peonies can be see in an attractive setting. My money is on the moles heading south once again into #35.

In the next month we can expect a glut of peonies, many of which will need supporting, and the hardy geraniums (Johnson's Blue). Behind the scenes. the final dahlias will be planted out and I have long list of 'tidying jobs', not to mention a bit of minor surgery to the bungalow roof. Now we are more or less finished with the spring flowers, a little bit of rain would not go amiss.

Click here for the next part.

Click here for the 2023 index.