Poison Ivy

We finally managed to get out in the garden the other weekend.  In between the rugby matches, obviously.  We began trying to clear the bed by the gin terrace just after we moved in.  It was covered with ivy, which has obviously been there for years and has a fierce grip on just about everything.  It takes some pulling out, I can tell you.  You grab a strand and then just pull and pull.  Sometimes it comes away.  Sometimes some of the wall comes with it.  Sometimes you can't shift it and have to take the shears to it.  However, slowly, slowly, we are making progress and this flower bed is reappearing.

We've now got huge piles of ivy all around the house.  The pile at the north side, which covered the entire side of the house and two huge piles on the terrace here.  S has been shredding like a thing possessed but we think that the more sensible option might be to get a skip, before his shredder bursts into flames with the effort.

Whilst I was doing this, S tackled the log shed.  This must be the only remaining of the original outhouses.  We pulled away the ivy to reveal lovely stonework with brick quoins.

And the ivy came away in great sheets.

We laid down our shears last weekend in favour of the rugby.

But hopefully we'll get back to it this weekend.  It's quite therapeutic really, hauling on long ropes of ivy and seeing loamy soil gradually reappearing.  And the robins hop about (we've got two of them) looking for worms and insects.  I think that you can just make one out to the right of the shears.  The wall at the back of this bed is a bit worrying (we've got very nervous of the garden walls now!) but I'm hoping to learn a thing or two about pointing when the builders finally arrive.  How difficult can it be?