The Joy Of Planting

The hardest frost of the winter so far met my eyes at 6am on Saturday so I knew it would be an achingly cold start and an achingly beautiful day at NC. There's not a lot you can do when the ground is like concrete so we turned our attention to some tree maintenance in Crow Wood, although ivy is wonderful for wildlife if it takes hold of a tree it increases its bulk making it more likely to fall victim to high winds, so we removed what we could, it certainly helped us to warm up. By the time we had finished the sun had melted some of the frost sufficiently for us to plant some new specimens around the garden, four plums, Coe's golden drop, president, opal and monsieur hatif, two apricots, hongoarse and tomcot and two apples, howgate wonder and Bleinheim orange. Then thankfully it was time for lunch. I eat like a horse when I'm gardening! Back to the planting afterwards with thirteen whitecurrants white grape, twenty redcurrants rotet, and finally to finish the day forty three Carpinus betulus ,hornbeam to form a new hedge! Quiet a busy day but a real pleasure to be planting again instead of ripping up dead things and tidying up, soon we will be flat out when spring pokes its nose into the garden.

"If you think in terms of a year, plant a seed, if in terms of ten years, plant a tree, if in terms of one hundred years, teach the people. Confucius.