Our conifers have gone!

We arrived home yesterday to find that out conifers had been removed! They were getting too big and beginning to block light from the house - it's only a very small front garden. Our problem now is how to manage the out of control ivy that is growing in the garden over the wall. A former neighbour planted it - kept it well trimmed and then moved house. Since then it's been totally neglected. It fills our access path and totally covered the rear of the conifers. The house is up for rent again and the actual owner is not a good neighbour! Though he was once heard to winge that `Nobody ever does anything for me!'

I'm thinking of having a low section of the wall repaired and then putting a trellis fence up above the wall. At least we can keep the ivy trimmed through the trellis and we can probably grow clematis among the ivy too. We seem to spend so much energy cutting back ivy and Pyracantha hedges - planted by neighbours!

We had an electrical inspection on the next door house this morning and as I thought we'll need it re-wired. The rest of my time was filled writing a schedule for the building work we'll need doing. I think we'll probably put it into the hands of the young man who visited us yesterday, whom we trust but we'll still need an estimate of costs from him.

Our afternoon spent trying to cut back ivy and tidy up the straggling shrubs that have emerged!