| After some more clearing, and repeat weeding, the garden looked almost respectable. |  |
 | I used broken slates, from when the roof was repaired, to cover the top end of the path down the left side. Spiky things like Phormiums and Sisyrinchiums look good growing through it and it does suppress some of the weeds. |
| The Epimediums in the wooden tub flowered happily and the bamboos became exuberant. |  |
 | Bed 5 remained reasonably tidy and I waited to see if the later plants would put in an appearance - some never did. |
| I managed to clear the entire garden - at least to ground level. I found that the Pyracantha which supported tons of ivy was dead, so cut it down, together with its ivy; ths also meant getting rid of about half of the Clematis armandii in that corner - but there was plenty left.
Underneath it all I discovered that the Epimediums, Ophiopogons and Liriopes had survived. |  |
 | The white Rhododendron and the Hellebores looked much happier when I had cleared away the brambles and ivy - both flowered happily. |
| In bed 4 the white Viburnum plicatum 'Snowflake', Cercis siliquastrum album and Rhododendron 'Arctic Tern' flowered above the bluebells and irises. |  |
 | The Wistaria had to be persuaded not to throttle the Cordyline, but flowered well. In the background you can see the slate. |
| In bed 5 the Geraniums were rather over-exuberant. I had to weed numerous seedlings from the path. |  |
 | The Californian Irises flowered well in bed 4 - but tryng to clear out the couch grass from them proved very difficult. |
| The 'water feature' side of the crazy paving remained fairly tidy.... |  |
 | ... but on the other side of the raised bed the Convallaria majalis grew through every crack, having spread further each year. |
| Even the paths stayed fairly weed-free, although I hadn't the heart to weed out the primulas. |  |
 | The bronze chickens were visible at last, with the pig trough of Menyanthes trifolilata behind them. |
