Weekend #5: Moving Earth and Weeding

This weekend Simon and I have been back in the garden, but with slightly different purposes.

Simon has been moving the earth out of the garden that he dug out over the last few weeks, so our patch is looking a lot tidier than it was before.

How its looking now:

And here's Simon posing with the spoils of digging:

MEanwhile, I've been clearing out weeds from our parking area. I made good progress yesterday, but was thwarted in my efforts by the evil Agapantha(?) shrubs that have been planted out by the builders. They have spikes about a centimetre long that will cut you to shreds through heavy duty gloves. So today I dug them all out and replaced them with Escalliona which look similar, but not spiny shrubs. The name currently escapes me, but they flower in summer with different colour so he have a mixture of white pink and red.

To give you an idea of how the bed in the parking area looked before, here's a pic of the bed down the other end of the car park:

And here's what the bed I've been working on now looks like (the Hebeis on the left have always been there and are lovely):

We also replaced the evil spiky bits just to the side of the house with lavender:

There is still a fair bit of weeding to do, but it will give me something to occupy me over the net week or so and then the whole place will look smart - especially if we get the hippo bags out the front picked up!
The quest to find a contactor continues. I've now had 2 quotes back and emailed both of them back to open negotiations... I also have the cards of 2 more landscapers. recommened by the local garden centre where we picked up the plants. As Simon commented on the way home: going to the garden centre on a Sunday afternoon, officially the most middle-aged, middle-classed past time, but at least we're listening to the Beastie Boys in the car.