Removing climber

[angie]

Hydrangea removed and now in their new place. Had to cut them back more than l had hoped to do. Lets hope they survive. Now what do I do with all the stones, anyone want to come and build me a rockery. My friends got a shock at how little a soil I have here. I told them it's a windy spot here and my topsoil must have been blown away 

Angie 

[Lina Hesseling]

Angie, looks as if they will be busy for a while. But the stones look great! You should use them again. Who will move them for you? You need an elephant!

Lina.

[angie]

Lina luckily enough we have some strong young men that work for my husband. We about killed ourselves digging out the climbers, so much roots. I remember the days when we would have easily shifted those stones ourselves. Our heads still think that we can but the body no longer can  I hope that we can do something with them but not sure. I need to make my garden less work so I have to be careful in what I do. Wish I could turn back the clock and be forty again 

Angie 

[ChrisB]

Wish you lived next door Angie, those are awesome rocks to work with.  You could build your own mountain....

[jomowi]

Wow, Angie - when you told me about the rocks in a private email, I had not imagined anything on such a vast scale!  What must the rest of your garden be like?  It does not give the impression of little soil and no rocks.  You once said an older building had been on the site - could the the rocks be demolished rubble from it?

[angie]

Hi Maureen

Some of those stones had to be snapped before we could get them out. When we bought our house it was called Lochend Cottage, I am sure there was a spelling mistake and it should have been Rockend Cottage as you can see by the picture the ground it just rock with a little topsoil. I think I have a good bit more soil now, with all the plants I have bought over the years I have introduced a couple of tons of soil from the pots.

It was a hard dig for the men. I wasn't going to allow a digger into my garden and squash all my plants. I do feed them well at lunchtime, they need their strength

Chris, I have a whole Pony paddock of stones from when we built our house 18 years ago. Some are really nice and have aged lovely.

Angie 

[Lesley Cox]

Aren't strong young men wonderful!

Angie, I'm sure you Acers will be fine. At one of my most favourite Australian gardens, not far from Otto's place, and called Cloudhill, two large Japanese mapeles were moved a few years ago to sit either side of a new pathway. At the time the maples were over 100 year old I believe and suffered no ill effects. Nowadays they are underplanted with hepaticas, cyclamen and similar things. I'll post the picture if I can find it.

[angie]

Lesley lets hope the Acer's will be all right, one good thing is we get plenty of rain this time of year. Nothing done this weekend, rained most of the time 

Angie 

[SusanS]

Hi Angie,
those rocks look wonderful, make the ones Darren and I had to dig out of our garden look like pebbles.   

How on earth did you dig out your pond? 
 
Susan

[angie]

Hi Angie,
those rocks look wonderful, make the ones Darren and I had to dig out of our garden look like pebbles.   

How on earth did you dig out your pond? 
 
Susan

Very strong young men  They went down 6ft down. I did feel guilty as it was really hard just lifting the stones out of the hole. Once the pond was finished the men thought their hard labour was worth it. After this there is no more getting done. I am getting to old for all this, this watching tires me out 

Angie 

[Graham Catlow]

Angie,
You should have got them to put the rocks on the other side of the foundations then got Derek to build a conservatory round them. Add compost then plant it up and what Derek thought was a conservatory is now an alpine house.

Those rocks would make a seriously good rock garden.

Graham

[angie]

Graham I wouldn't dare  Hey where do you get all the good ideas from.   I never thought of that.

I did say to Derek the other day that I could do with another greenhouse. He said I need to have a major clear out of plants  He said I have to many pots. I did give him a reply but I can't post what I said on the forum 

Angie 

[ChrisB]

Just ask him how many golf balls he's got Angie.....

[angie]

Chris one thing for sure is that he has lost more golf balls than I have plants. And my plants are a lot cheaper than his golf clubs, golf trips and off course his golf membership. Whats our membership here 

Angie 

[Lesley Cox]

A mere bagatelle Angie, compared with a golf club membership.