Everything is NOT coming up roses thanks to chickens!
.....any gardening as they behave like locusts at our feet.
It was cold work but a dead tree is never much to look at - especially on a dull winter's day! It was tricky work trying to avoid Crocus and Muscari bulbs but things did look much better when we'd finished. I was glad we'd done it as the poor Acacia was well and truly deceased. Chris then went off to help Al with his bunker - a dug out constructed to house the pond filter and keep it frost free. I went off to the (warmer) greenhouse and potted up 36 pink cuttings.
This morning, there was a certain sense of outrage to find that the girls had practically dug out one of the precious roses. Bulbs and piles of soil littered the top lawn. Could I have predicted the effects of four resident chickens in our 3/4 acre garden? We certainly gave it much thought before taking the plunge. Having grown up on a farm with both deep litter and free range poultry I wasn't entirely ignorant. I remember the pigs breaking into the garden and eating the Magnolias but a mere 4 chickens in this garden? No experience at all. When plants are established, little harm is done. As bulbs are just poking through, I notice the poor snowdrops are being disturbed - hmmm! What to do?
Anyway - back to David Austin (who incidentally looks a little like Michael Heseltine in his photos). I have been DYING to visit his nursery and gardens forever! Choosing a freezing cold January day with a biting east wind was not optimal. Not a single flower to be seen, no camera with me and not a soul around, I wouldn't have missed it for the world. With only peacocks and sunshine for company, I wandered looking and reading every label on every plant trying to imagine how different it would all look on a June morning!. It was totally worthwhile and most enjoyable. I did spend some time in the warmth of the shop with the very nice ladies and I certainly intend to return when the roses are in bloom. Let's hope mine remain in the ground long enough to produce the odd flower!
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