Garden adventures and woe

Nine days on since my last post and I woke up (again) to a nice white sheet of snow covering the garden.
I had been busy in the garden on and off these last couple of weeks (weather permitting). 

All the trees and shrubberies had a good trim before -what I thought looked like imminent- spring. 
I got rid of some annoying green ground cover (about four wheelbarrows).  
Then I went on a garden centre shopping spree. I planted some 12 English Lavender plants (Lavandula angustifolia), bought a Common Broom (Cytisus scoparius), and a variety of sedum plants which I combined with some I had transplanted from our old garden and had kept to replant when the time was wright. Another sort of ground cover was planted alternately being Vinca minor; the white breed 'Gertrude Jeckyll' and the purple variety.

I also planted loads of gladiolus bulbs but nothing seems to be happening.

I also fetched a flexible border. Dr Livingstone didn't want a straight path in front but a winding 'romantic' one. So flex border it was.

Then I stumbled upon a sale of viola in hanging baskets. I got 9 of them (3 yellow, 3 white and 3 purple) and they're fixed to the end of the roof beams of the conservatory now. 

I also wanted a small herbgarden. I got in oregano, thyme, rosemary, basil, chives and parsley.
I fashioned a small raised planting box (which was pre-made), mixed in our own soil with some fertilizer and extra chalk and put in everything.
So far the basil has not survived the extreme low temperatures. 

I have sown some dill in the conservatory, that should be coming out in a fortnight. 
I still want coriander, sage, huge amounts of mint (mmmm, lovely fresh mint tea!) and maybe some fennel.

This week I got some eight or so strawberry plants and yesterday I got in blackcurrent, raspberries and red berries (Ribes family). Three of each for starters. We would like to plant them next to the car port together with apple and pear trees. The siding of the car port is a dark brown now and gives off loads of heat. Dr Livingstone wants to renew the sides with stuff they use on the side of lorries, as they require a lot of paintwork and something low-maintenance would be a big plus.

Dr Livingstone has been digging some trenches here and there (as long as his back permits). We still need to have some borders put in to make the garden look a bit better, corner off some areas. The guys still need to sow in large parts of the garden with grass and make some kind of sitting area in front of the conservatory, around the beach tree and make a parking space for my car.

They were here to look at the job to make us an estimate, but they haven't got back to us with a price. Nor is the weather helping us either. It is still freezing at night and temperatures do not go above some 8ºC during the day. Even if there is a small bit of sunshine, the wind makes everything ice cold.
I don't think the shrubs have survived the winter which I wanted to save and had 'translanted'. After the severe drought in august/september, the extreme wet fall and now extende winter, I'm afraid there's not much going to be left of everything.

On top of that we also need to get rid of the excess dirt where currently the exercise area for the horses is. The wrong kind of sand needs to be shifted and half of the terrain is going to be grass too. And we need to have some comfortable garden furniture so we can do some naps here and there or sit beside the petanque-area with a pastis in hand.

So lots still to do! 

I leave you with poor bewildered Mouser looking out for better weather.