The weather was not so kind to us first thing on Thursday morning so we retreated into the peach house for a dry start. The over wintered salvias were in need of pruning, the peach trees needed help in ridding themselves of dead leaves and red spider mite webs, and finally the emerging freesias need supporting with twiggy sticks. After tea break we then brushed down and treated the outside benches with linseed oil which smells lovely, and pruned the apple trees in the iris border. Winter sunshine after lunch meant we could no longer delay a dreaded task, despite Shandy's best efforts we are still plagued with rabbits which delight in evading capture by residing under the yew hedges, so it was decided to net them. This entails digging down a good spades depth, inserting the wire underneath and burying it before bending the net upwards and staking it in place. The yew will grow through and hide the wire and after a year or two we should be able to remove the stakes. One side of one hedge took us all afternoon and the other side means digging through turf, not an easy task, oh well three more side to go and we may achieve our goal of being rabbit free!
A quote in honour of Valentines day and barriers
"Love recognises no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope"
Maya Angelou
Lets just hope the rabbits don't live by this sentiment!
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