Spring Has Sprung

In the week since I was last at Norton Conyers the garden has sprung to life, thanks largely to the stunning Easter weather, who would have thought we would be blessed with such a good spell so early. We have been busy potting up the dahlias, dividing the sale plants and mowing the grass. It is now all steam ahead for the gardening season, the tasks naturally follow one from another at this time of year, when the willow hedge has been cut we shall have to turn our attention to sowing and planting.  The clocks going forward have shaken us out of winter dormancy encouraging us to extend the working day to eight hours, that will take some getting used to again!

A new garden gate has been ordered but I think Shandy will miss the old one!

"Be an opener of doors for such as come after thee"
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Euphorbia Euphoria

We have resumed our battle with the rabbits. Upon entering the garden yesterday it quickly became apparent that their activity has increased with the same speed as the plant growth. As soon as the tender young shoots are pushed through the earth they nibble them off, and in the case of some of the more tender varieties like the phlox and veronica's if we don't act we will probably lose them. Consequently we spent most of the day in the main yew hedge, and yes I do mean that literally, although it was mostly Giles who climbed all the way in! We were filling in the rabbit burrows with rubble and old wire netting, if we can't chase them out we will block them out! It didn't make for a very exciting day as I'm sure you can imagine, however at one point I glanced over to the peach house and saw this exquisite Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii looking dazzling in the spring sunshine. It goes to prove that small pleasures can make ones day.

"Enjoy present pleasures in such a way as to not injure future ones"
Seneca

The Big Spring Clean

I love all aspects of spring except one, the cleaning. As soon as the watery sun emerges again you start to notice all the hideous cobwebby corners of the house, shed or whatever structure it is that belongs to you. Due to this very fact I haven't blogged for a while because Giles has had our noses to the grindstone sorting out the less salubrious areas of the garden at Norton Conyers.
We started with the apple store removing the now rotting or mummified fruit and sweeping out the detritus. We then moved on to the two big storage sheds and the bothy, burning any rubbish to be found and gathering all the scrap metal to go to the dealers. I swear if Nicky sees another rat she will have a nervous breakdown, she deals with the spiders for me and I cope with anything with a tail!
Finally yesterday we began to garden again, it was time to cut back the buddlejas and some of the larger shrubs and our last chance to take root cuttings from the romneyas and eryngiums, these have been placed in the peach house as you can see from the photo. I also got to play at being a bee by giving the peach flowers a little extra pollination with the aid of a paintbrush, it certainly is a varied life being a gardener!

"Our house is clean enough to be healthy, and dirty enough to be happy"
Anon

March Musings

Sunshine and snow is how to sum up today, when the cold wind brought in the showers we felt the icy nip, although within a few minutes they blew away. We returned to the woods to plant trees this morning, blackthorn, lime,hazel and oak and in order to make space for them we built a bonfire and cut down elder and burnt it. The heat was welcome on our cold faces. Shandy was a pretty picture with her black coat against the snowdrops.
The only other thing of note to mention was a visitor to our garden yesterday, Dave spotted a sparrow hawk perched upon the compost bin feasting on an unfortunate blue tit, the feathers were plucked with vigour poor little thing, I hope it wasn't one of my garden regulars!

"Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush"
Doug Larson

Mulching Again

I've not much to say today as we have been cleaning the garden benches and mulching again, so just a photo of this gorgeous hellebore as they start to shine in the quiet corners. It is such a pity that we get no visitors to see them at this time of year, the winter garden has its beauty too. Speaking of mulching, Alyson wore a pedometer last Thursday and we were all shocked to discover that from 1.30pm until 4.00pm we walked seven and a half miles! Add to that the four miles we covered this morning and it's no wonder my feet have been aching!


"The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step"
Lao Tzu

Bare Bones

In January and February the garden is reduced to its bare bones, every tree and shrub is exposed so its shape may be pruned and corrected. Today we worked our way around the apple trees removing damaged or diseased growth and also pruning out water shoots, these are the whippy growths that emerge after the last pruning and must be sawn off to stop them re-emerging. Whilst we were removing last years growth from the clematis by the gate I noticed a beautiful nest, it was a work of art enclosed over with moss and must have been a perfect baby bird nursery. Giles tells me that it was home to a family of long tailed tits. This made me think of my foray into my own garden at the weekend when I turned the compost heap and mulched, half way through one side of the bin I inadvertently destroyed a mouse nest. With much regret as it was a beautifully cosy little hide away, I shall now have thoughts of a poor little creature cast out into the cold and having to make its way through the hazards of next doors garden! I hope it moves back in as I shall not be disturbing things again for quite some time.

"To fly high you must come out of the nest and dream high"
Farah Mustafa

Snowdrops In The Sun

The weather continues to bless us and our cook outs have continued dry and comfortable. Where is the snow? Every single day that we have camped out in the woods has been dry, surely that is a first for January and February. Not much to report other than I saw the fox again yesterday, I'd just started sawing down an elder near a large hole when out it popped, as near to me as it could have been! Nice to glimpse it again but I wish I was quicker with my camera. Our clearing labours in the woods have now finished and we will be turning our attention to tree planting and returning to the garden, there is still much to do before the greenery starts growing again and catches us up, then we must put large projects aside and begin mowing, seeding and care-taking once more.
"An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day"
Joel Osteen

I wish this photo was in better focus, but at least you can get an impression of how magnificent the snowdrops are now.