Homemade trees and a few garden bits.

I had to make one or two extra trees to go fill both side edges of my quarry and this is what they look like, sideways on. The top is not quite finished - I think it needs a bit more greenery but may wait for advice from my group meeting on Tuesday.

The view from the other side. I'll photograph it again when it is completely finished.

The pond is restored, thank goodness, but I can't get the rocks and stones around the waterfall back into their original positions. You would think it would be straightforward enough, but somehow it isn't quite as good as it was before. I expect I shall be out there again before long shifting them about trying to improve it. I'm amazed at how much time I can waste fiddling about with it. It's nearly as time consuming as blogging!

Eighteen months ago nothing wanted to grow in this part of the garden, then our neighbours had the height of their conifer hedge drastically reduced and suddenly we had light here, and sometimes it even got sunlight too. What a difference it has made and until I did a bit of weeding and cutting back, it was a mini jungle.

This is my latest acquisition - a red plantain. It is such a handsome plant and the colour of the leaves is much richer than it appears here - the light is very poor today. I bought this plant because I hope to do a project on the nine sacred Anglo-Saxon herbs which are mugwort, plantain, watercress, nettle, betony, chamomile, crab apple, chervil and fennel, and thought it would make the project more interesting if I had them growing in the garden. I now have most of them and only need chervil, crab apple and watercress, and that is in a bag in the fridge! Is that cheating? I have a very lush looking nettle and was just about to dig it up when I realised it was a sacred herb so had better stay in place and keep the others company. Well that's my excuse anyway.
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If you do any research on this subject you will find variations in the herbs on the list and may come across sweet cicely or vipers' bugloss in place of betony. The other eight are pretty constant no matter which source you work from but the 'mystery' herb has never been fully identified apparently. To add further confusion, the Druids had their own list of sacred herbs so there is another project waiting to be tackled after this one.

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The sun is shining again so I might nip out and do a bit more gardening. I've been dodging the showers all day but the rain is very welcome.