Goodbye Poppies.

Slowly spaces are opening up again as the beautiful masses of native wild poppies successively grew smaller. I’ve pulled them out as they faded and the other plants needed more space and less competition.

I put the faded poppies and other desired “weeds” on the service walkway that goes along the side of the garden and shredded them as much as possible with the strimmer. Along this way we‘ve had earth works recently to put in a dry wall and as a result the soil was a mass of powdery clay again. With this mulching it’s easier to walk there, especially when rain makes the clay slippery. Plus all that “untamed nature” can reseed itself there as we fill up the rest of the garden with more shrubs, perennials and groundcovers.

Mulching with Tree Chaff

The rest of the garden got mulched yesterday with chaff from the grand old tamarix tree growing out of the side of the embankment. Over many years without trimming it had grown very big and we were worried that it would break or detach itself one of these days in a heavy wind.

It looks a bit awful now but I’m sure it will recover in a few months time. And hopefully the exposure to the sun and air will help against the fungus that was growing on its trunk.