The second tier

This is, at present, the most functional and least interesting level of the garden. On the left is the drying green, on the right a sloping grass bank with several overgrown shrubs and behind them a line of very old fruit bushes. The first two pics show how it looked when I moved in and the second two how it looks today. Of course I arrived in the depths of a wet Argyll Winter and it is now the height of Summer, so not a fair comparison.

It is perhaps a bit harsh to call this level uninteresting. In the Spring the lower part of the bank is covered in bluebells which gives me an excellent reason for not cutting the grass. The shrubs, though they do all need the attention of an axe wielding maniac, are ones I would have chosen for my garden (apart from another blasted pampas grass). A variegated weigela dominates to the right. In late Spring/Summer it is bowed down with blossoms which vary from soft creamy pink to rich, dusky mauve. I have often sat at the summerhouse on the next tier, which brings my eye level to the top of weigela, and looked straight into the eyes of a caterpillar-carrying bluetit, returning to feed chicks in my nesting box. There is also a gold leaved spirea which the bumble bees adore and a well established azalea that is covered in vivid scarlet flowers in early Spring.

To the left, I have worked hard on the grass of the drying green. After much weeding, feeding and moss raking it is starting reward me with a smooth green carpet rather than the hummocky, midge-infested, trip hazard of last year. I'm trying to hand cut twice a week rather than use the electric mower. This means I get some aerobic exercise (booo hiss), save money on power (hurrah) and because the lawn is regularly cut I don't need to gather up the small amount of clippings but can let them mulch back in. It seems daft to me to fertilise a lawn and then, when the lush, green grass springs up, remove all that goodness just to tip it on the compost heap. By the boundary fence there is a beautiful camellia which throws such a profusion of white blossom in Spring you can't see the leaves underneath. Two ancient honeysuckles were trained in a woody, diseased tangle against the retaining wall. I have cut these back to the ground and am waiting to see if they survive. I planted a second camellia by the steps and think I may try to establish a line of these to hide the clotheswhirly from the house.