Leaf Creations

Thursday 29th March.

So much for lists!  I had four things on my gardening list and I didn’t do any of them – well perhaps the tidy up one.  I have been out in the garden all day today digging here, weeding there, transplanting over there.  Yes I’ve been busy  and I’m so pleased with the results!!  We have a lawn of sorts in the back garden and the weather has been sooooo beautiful that it needed cutting.  I have actually cut it twice now!  (Pat on the back!)  But…. that meant the rest of the garden  was in need of attention.  So I abandoned the front garden and have been concentrating my efforts in the back garden.  The front doesn’t look too bad as all the grape hyacinths are out and the violets too!  It is a mass of purple.  I said PURPLE!!!!  oooooo I love it.  The pictures don’t do it justice.

 

 

Yes I know it is over grown and I will get around to the thinning but at the moment it can be a riot of colour.  So to the back garden.      I started with the bed at the back.  Weeding and hoeing and edging and then filling in the gaps.  Two lavender bushes grown from cuttings.  Five Aquilega moved from the other side.  And a huge clump of snowdrops split into ever so many clumps.

 

 

We have a brick BBQ and ‘table’ but we do not use it now because of the Clematis growing up the wall.  It is now a bird table for all the bits and pieces I put out for them.  I had a running battle with the cats of the neighbourhood last year, using this bed as  … you know what!  The soil in the garden is clay and it has taken a long time to make the soil nice and crumbly and now the cats like it!!  GRRRRRrrrrrrr!  So I thought the only way to stop them is to fill it up with plants.  We will see.

I continued around the garden edging the lawn and making new the borders.  The next bed doesn’t get a lot of sun at this time of year.  It started out as a little rockery.  A very flat rockery!!  But then we extended it to include the gravel and the bubble tubes.

 

 

Each pebble and  tube needs washing and the whole pump needs cleaning.  And you’re right,  it is on the to do list.  Mental note taken!  The gravel wriggles round in front of the decking.  Now that has been cleaned and the wooden furniture has been oiled.  Ticked!!

 

The white sink in the front is where my little lavender bushes have been growing.  It all looks a bit bare.  Mental note 2, to buy compost and bedding plants for all those pots!!!  So yes the garden looks quite presentable…

 

 

Until you look behind me…  Ouch!

 

Meet the greenhouse and the rubbish.  All 12 bags of it!  Two runs down to the tip and it then looked like this.

 

As seen from the conservatory.  Mental note 3. Wash the green house and sort out all the pots.  The little bed beside it is one area I have big plans for.  All the plants I have transplanted today have come out of this border.  I want to grow a few fruit bushes.  There is already a rhubarb crown which only just survived the hard frosts and heavy snow of two winters ago.  A blueberry bush is on its way and I would quite like a couple of currant bushes.  The area to the other side is at the moment filled with three coal bunkers which we do not need now having blocked off the chimney.  Now there is where Son and I were planning.  Remember the raised beds?  But that is a lot of work and we are not quite there yet.  So I am just going to sit in my tidy garden and dream………

 

 

Monday 19th March.

It has been sunny today with a cool breeze, but good to be out and about in.  We’ve had mixed weather over the last week.  Yesterday we even had hail and this morning the grass was white with frost.  As I travelled over to Lincolnshire on Saturday the rain threw it down.  Double speed wipers and very big puddles, but even so we are still told to be careful with the water.

Last week I ventured out into the front garden with all my instruments of torture and some dusty gloves.  A few claps and the dust was gone and the dead heading began.  I have quite a few Sedums in the front garden and all are starting to shoot.  The large flower heads needed to come off.  I missed this one!!

It was hiding behind the Peris (I’ll apologise now for any spelling mistakes!!)  The Peris is quite a large bush.  I did trim it last back end, but I am in a bit of a quandry as to what to do.  It does seem to dominate.

Beside it is a Lavender,  and an Osmanthus

(are you impressed?  Cheat really, I went and read the label!!!) with a holly way behind and a bush that has yellow flowers that I cut down every other year.  No cheat this time – it doesn’t have a label!!  So what do I do with it?  I love the leaves, colour and smell and if I chop it down a bit I will loose it’s shape and the fresh appeal.

Oooooo what do I do?  So while I mull it over I shall be concentrating on the little plants.  The garden looks very full to the eye and most of it is NOT weeds.  I have a border of Grape Hyacinth.  I love these little purple flowers.  Well they are purple!  But for every spike, you get loads of leaves.  Too many leaves!  So my first job on my list for next time is to thin these out!  Why did you plant sooooo many I hear you ask?  I didn’t.  They are all self sets.  I am a great believer in letting the self sets grow, whether they be  Grape Hyacinths or Polyanthus or Granny Bonnets or whatever.  I like the natural look.  I suppose a little bit cottagey.  But even the natural look needs a helping hand so on to the list it must go.  I need to weed and gently aerate the soil too.  It is very sticky despite the lack of rain and as I tiptoe over it, it just makes it more compact.  So I’ll need to get my trowel and fork and gently ease and tease it back into a crumble!  So my list for this week and perhaps next is,

1. Thin out the Grape Hyacinth
2. Weed between the bushes
3. Aerate the soil – that sounds so professional – hehe – Not!!!
4. A general tidy up.

I’m in the process of dusting off my gardening gloves so pop back later!!