Before & After

Hope you get better soon. Its a problem when we can no longer garden like we use to, its the lifting and digging I find the hardest now. I feel I ought to alter my garden to help me as I approach a different era - but cannot bring myself to do it yet and then it may be too late for me to be able to make the changes!

I know the feeling all too well, both with couch grass and ability to dig things and move things around. But we are good at adapting and changing how we work and do stuff in and around the garden, good luck with it all. Little and often is the way to go. It all looks lovely :O)

i square it off and if im ok after my square i do another,how do you get rid of the grass i find it realy hard when its in my plants and got rid of some i realy liked this year,i love before and after pics

It looks lovely Greenfinger. Nobody would guess you have had problems keeping it in shape. The pretty heucheras make a great border edging.

Drc, I've been advised to redesign my garden into an 'easy' one such as doing away with borders & having more shrubs, prob good advice but I'm not prepared to do away with all my new herbaceous plants. I'll just have to try harder, lol.

Barbara, I think adapting starts long before you realise it, little & often is def the way to go.

Ladybug, wait until the plants are dormant then dig them up & tease out the couch grass. That's what I did with the infested Christmas roses & split them up at the same time, it completely rejuvenated them.

Thanks, Stera, I am very pleased with the heuches. Reshaping & widening the border has worked well.

I could not do without my flowers in my borders, I find that if I do a big tidy up in February it seems to last better and the weeds cannot see daylight after that so give up lol well that's the theory now the practice is maybe a tad different. lol. as for couch grass it grows from the smallest piece of root and all you can do is keep working on it and taking it out as much as you can, it is a control rather than kill off cure.

I totally agree, Barbara, it's the flowers that become the hi-lights at different times. As for the couch, well, it's just as you say, now the bindweed doesn't seem to be responding to being painted with Roundup!
No rest for us yet.

Sorry to hear you are not 100% but you have done a sterling job, the borders look lovely....... unfortunately we all have to make a decision re our garden when we reach a certain age!! ours is very high maintenance it keeps us busy most days....all the best.... don't overdo it...:-!:-!:-!

Thanks DD, I'm learning to be more accepting & spend more time just looking at all the different birds that come to feed. I've seen a fox stroll down the path & patrol round the lawn for the first time, also a huge barn owl one evening, a sparrow hawk skim past the kitchen windowsill & (not so good) a rat jumping up the rungs of a metal arch to get to the bird seed feeder! (Dealt with that tho).

I envy you sighting the owl and the sparrow hawk....but you keep the rat lol

Nobody would think your health wasn't the best after seeing the photos of your garden! You've done yourself proud!

Aw thanks, Balcony, I try & do a little every few days or so but believe me I will never get it weed free, I'm hoping the plants will get bigger & smother them, lol.

The only people who have a weed free garden are those who have it concreted over! Even I have weeds on my balcony!!! LOL!

....or maybe those that have a gardener to do it for them, lol.