I have been busy planning for my trip overseas, making the garden as maintenance free as possible. At first I thought I would take the fish and plants out of the pond, but in actual fact it seems more work. The main things that takes up my time, is removing leaves that have fallen in the pond, and dealing with too much rain which causes a lot of slime to grow. I have rigged the umbrella to be a little higher and hopefully it stays in place all the time. I took out most of the fish to give to my stepson, but then noticed lots of little ones growing, so I obviously didn't remove them all! lol!
We had a huge amount of rain and wind lately, and my arch came crashing down, so that area has had to be re-configured. I have moved most of my orchids there, and they get a little more filtered light than they did on the fence.. A facebook group called orchid growing for dummies has been very helpful, so hopefully I get a few more flowers.
One of the orchids I have found hard to manage is the ladyslipper orchid vine, and I have been continually digging it up and removing it. I realized that I would need to be quite vigilant and the garden where the vine had been was too deep and inaccessible, so I cleared out an area to provide access. Before I knew it, I had created a fairy glen!
I will get some solar operated fairy lights to hang around the candelabra, and either fill the area around the birdbath with stones or mulch. I am thinking mulch, because I do have a lot of stones in my garden. I am hoping the orchids will be happy hanging here on the fences.