Now the big telescope has been brought into the house (from the garage), this is its route to the platform.

The frilly ox-eye daisies by the catmint are disappearing, for some reason.

Now the telescope is no longer wheeled down this path it doesn’t have to be kept wide.

I’ve often thought about planting something in this gap. Mind-your-own-business, chamomile, succulents or sweet woodruff. As a first step I cleared out the gravel in the narrow section to a depth of 100cm or so when it was dry, cleaned it and topped it up with fresh golden gravel. The drainage is probably still not brilliant.

The edge of F1 near the front door continues to be the best. Let’s see how it does over winter.

Thes are all good at the moment, apart, perhaps, from the N side of B1, which is quite shaded.

The fuchsia should break up the large patch of persicaria and stop it looking rather dull in winter.

See also October 18, March 18, June 17

Pittosporum ‘Golfball’ at the front

This is a fantastic plant with a very good shape, and lovely dark red stems, but I don’t want it to get too tall and shade the border behind. The idea is to make it lower and let it spread over the gravel.

Pittosporum ‘Golfball’ at the back

This plant is looser, and there’s nothing behind that it’s shading.

Pittosporum ‘Elizabeth’ at the back

Another cracking plant with a more fastigiate form. It was getting too high and shading the Prostanthera behind it. I cut it back to about 50%

There are three plants right at the front. (Actually four, but the closest two are effectively one.) They’re too big and too uniform, although I love their flowers and their toughness.

I’ve tried to treat the three clumps in three different ways.

The one in the middle has been cut to the ground, and some plants from the National Botanic Garden planted around it on 30th March – possibly temporarily.

The other two have been cut back to a better size. The one on the left has also had about a third of the thick old stems cut to the ground.

This path is really rather too wide. The pots help, and I’ll try to plant some more overlapping edging this summer. If that fails I’ll enlarge the beds by making a new border, probably with rows of bricks. The metal edging would be hard to move, even though I’ve got some spare pieces, but it shouldn’t be difficult to get out.