Here there be rocks...

We have spent the last few days clearing the ground at the end of the garden, in preparation for moving the shed and building the raised beds for our vegetable garden project.

It seems that many years ago (and certainly before the last owners of our cottage), there was a sort-of rockery at the back of the pond, probably planted with a couple of little conifers. The conifers are no longer small, as you can see!

As we started to clear the area behind the conifers, we came across these fabulous slabs of stone.

and there are far more hidden in the undergrowth! The plan is to clear this entire area and then construct at least four reasonable sized raised beds. The soil here is heavy clay, and I swear that every snail and slug in the South West has moved here  - I have never seen so many! We may have to invest in nematodes, though I have read that a hefty garlic solution is also effective. It's either that, or lay in some cheap beer for them!

This is the area where the shed will go; the pine tree shades the ground here, so it makes sense to have the growing beds on the side of the garden that gets the most sun. We keep finding old slates here - can only assume that they were used to mark the edge of the lawn and probably came from our roof when it was re-done some years back.

Behind the conifers were two elderly hebes (see above); I took cuttings before we started to cut them down, so hopefully they will root and then I can grow them on. When we moved here, there were two massive hebes near the drive, but they had to go when we had the oil tank and boiler installed. Be nice to be able to put one or two back in the garden if I can.

Once we have cleared the ground behind the conifers, we will put up a fence right across the garden to divide the areas, probably without a gate for ease of access, then use the stones to build a rock feature. Nothing gets wasted around here!