End of Summer?

I was awake and up by 6.30 this morning ready for a day of working in the garden. 

Then everything turned white as the rain arrived, clearing to dark grey skies and the possibility of more showers. No wonder the Welsh name for July, Mis Gorffenaf literally means 'end of summer'. But ever the optomist I'm sure we'll have more good weather before autumn arrives.

In the same optomistic vein I changed into my work clothes and began mixing mortar and would you believe it? The day stayed fine and dry even becoming hot at times. I only wish I'd got some washing done too.

I had a little difficulty with the mortar in that the sand, despite being packed in plastic sacks, was wet and I only needed the smallest amount of water to get to my preferred semi-dry mortar. The wall is now up but I still have to buy some coping stones to top the walls. They had some almost suitable coping stones at Huws but I'll check out a couple of other places as well. After taking the above photo I cleared weeds from the brick planter and for good measure began to empty out some of the soil. This was mainly to see what it was like at the bottom of the planter. It was then that I came across one of my pet dislikes - bits of polystyrene, hundreds of them. Put there to bulk out the compost. I well remember back in the 70s one of the gardening programmes, on the radio I think, advising putting polysytrene in big pots to keep the weight down. Okay, it's harmless to the plants but it doesn't break down except into smaller and smaller pieces, yuck. Who wants their soil polluted with bits of plastic? I picked out two large plant pot fulls before stopping for the day.

It was as I sat on the terrace admiring the meadow grasses blowing in the wind that inspiration struck. Why not have ornamental grasses in the new raised bed? I've always loved grasses and I even have some spare in the back garden to make a start with. That's why I spend so much time simply watching the garden and thinking. Because eventually the perfect solution comes to this daft old head of mine.