The first of the Blackcurrants have been dug up and rehomed today. I am thankful for the late Spring which allows these to be transplanted so late in the season. These will be planted quickly and hopefully will take off straight away. I like Blackcurrants as much as anyone but I think the previous inhabitants of this place must have had an obsession with them. Any gaps were filled with a Blackcurrant. Under trees, among the shrubs and flowers, Blackcurrants everywhere. I counted over 50 plants… far too many.
This bed will be emptied too. A big clump of Rubus tricolor and a Golden Ivy, nothing else. Not for me! Lots of plants from this to swop for new garden treasures. I guess if we all liked the same things the world would be a pretty boring place.
Have spent most of the last few days in the garden. Pruning, planning and digging out stuff. The weather has been lovely… not stop sunshine. Half the conifers at the boundary line have been cut, the rest will go next week. When we bought the house it was with the understanding that these trees which were shading the bottom part of the garden would be cut. We get to have the timber too. It will need seasoning before being used in the stoves over Winter.
Lettie kept herself occupied for hours today watching some little creature which was in the undergrowth…
whilst Freddie slept in a sunny spot in the conservatory.
fromacountrycottage 
It was fun watching your progress.
Do you need to have permission to cut down trees in your property in Ireland? In the US, such permissions are needed for certain properties and for certain trees. Are you also going to cut down all those conifers in the distant that we can see in the picture?
Permission is needed to cut any tree over 10 years old but this is often ignored I’m afraid. The conifers in question were planted for commercial harvesting so no permission needed there. They are not on our property. Our boundary finishes just before the trees that have been cut but, the owner kindly agreed to cut them so that our garden got full sunlight. A good neighbour!
Such a large project – and so much more fun to watch its transformation through your blog than to have to do all the digging, trimming, pruning and re-homing! Soldier on!
Luckily we do like a challenge!
you have done quite a lot in these few sunny days Bridget, the birds love blackcurrants so perhaps the previous owners didn’t use them all their selves or maybe they were into blackcurrant jam!
I think with some gardens the new owner doesn’t see the original garden but only the plants that become dominant, some beds may have originally been planted with several plants but if left then 1 or 2 plants take over and suffocate the rest, we all have to do cutting back to keep some plants playing nicely with the other plants,
it is good we all have different tastes, variety is the spice of life, Frances
I think you’re right there Francis. Interest was lost when the people were moving on and plants were just left to their own devices. I am really quite happy with the layout of the garden and love the work of making it how we want it. Have about 200 plants in pots to fit in there too!
xx
Your progress is astounding…everything you describe takes thought, time and energy. Wonderful to have the sunny days for work like this. Thanks for sharing your in-progress photos!
Oh my goodness, I LOVE black currants ,we get such a small yield from our bushes, I’d love 50 plants! I’m interested that you burn softwood, here we only burn hardwood.
Janex
Not so much hardwoods planted here. Ash is about the best for burning here and it can be burnt in the green. Spruce like these would’nt be our first choice but we’ve been given them FREE. They will of course have to be seasoned before burning. Not being people to look a gift horse in the mouth we said “thanks very much”. I had 20 blackcurrants in Arigna which gave more than enough for a year. That included jam for sale too of which I sell quite a bit. xx
good to know how many plants you need to keep. There is ivy in our next garden. A LOT of ivy, and there’ll be a battle. I’d like most of it out, he LIKES ivy …
I too like ivy but there’s only so much you can take of any one plant. There’s lots of ivy here too. Most of it willbe coming out!
Great to see how your garden is progressing and I agree that 50 blackcurrant bushes is a bit over the top.
Love your garden Bridget – you guys are just entering Spring whereas we are preparing for winter stacking wood and optimizing sunny days! Looking forward to reading your garfen progress.
Take care, Flavia
Thanks Flavia!
Will look forward to seeing the progress of your garden, and maybe getting a few hints for my own very small garden!
Small is beautiful. We don’t need a lot of land to create a beautiful garden or indeed grow enough food for us to eat. We have just three quarters of an acre here and intend to grow most of our own veg.