End of Month View August 2017: the walls are done; the plants will follow

Everyone, look; the walls are done:

Up by the compost bins it’s still slightly loose, because I still need to work out what I’m doing with the slope there!

But the middle terrace is not merely done, but the ground leveled behind it:

This has allowed me to move some of the vegetables back towards the Buddleia They Couldn’t Kill:

Which in turn gave me space to have a more welcoming patio area (see the new chiminea!) when my parents came to visit:

Every success in itself has a knock-on effect, which is lovely to see.

Only one of the two service pipes is what I would call properly buried; I wasn’t around for when they laid the second foundations so they didn’t leave space to have it below eventual ground level:

But I’d still say that’s a minor niggle about an otherwise brilliant job. If you’re in Sheffield, and you need walls like this built, let me know and I’ll pass on the details.

There’s still a good 5-10 cubic metres of topsoil to go in, once I’ve ordered it. But things are finally taking shape!

Vegetables

A lot of the greener vegetables have gone over; you can see in some of the photos above a row of blown lettuces! Once that happens they’re not palatable, so I’ve moved on to….

Tomato “Gardener’s Delight”

We received five unprepossessing plug plants of this tomato from the Organic Gardening Catalogue, but I have to say I’m astonished at what five quite small (and now somewhat blighted) plants can do.

My parents were here for four days; for three of those days, we repeatedly took bowlfuls of tomatoes from the plants:

In response, others simply ripened in their stead!

Courgettes “White Volunteer” and “Nero di Milano”

White Volunteer is beginning to fruit, while Nero di Milano recovers from its setback:

For comparison, here’s WV filling up its (much bigger) pot:

NdM still has some catching up to do; but maybe that’s good, because we might get a succession rather than a glut. It all depends on when the first frost is, I suppose.

Borlotti beans

These were a gift from the Welsh Rose’s mother:

I have no idea what to do with them, but they look awfully nice.

Ornamentals

The ornamental border still looks great:

Anemone hupehensis “Hadspen Abundance” was brightening up a dull day with flat light

Acer “Anne Irene” is filling out a bit:

While the inherited Acer has started to turn a kind of bloody, wine-coloured purple, like juicestained lips:

Although that Acer has had a reprieve in our planting plan, elsewhere, the Rose They Couldn’t Kill has been turfed up by the building work! You can see the bare patch to the right of the compost bins above.

Luckily, though, the cuttings of the Buddleia They Couldn’t Kill are looking great:

So when it does come time to paradoxically whip out the existing one, there’ll be replacements for the new garden.

(Thanks to Steve at Glebe House for taking over the hosting the EOMV meme.)