More Recycling in Favour of Chickens

On possibly the wildest gardening day ever, Chris (Genever) and I braved storm Eunice to make a new door for the House for Hens!  The old ply door was really disreputable.  The the ply was delaminating and it was falling to pieces. 

The new door has been expertly crafted from a recycled and very old pine shelf.  It is a traditionally styled ledge and brace door but in miniature!.  The edges of each panel have been chamfered and finished with my favourite mixture of 50 - 50 linseed oil and pure turpentine.  Obviously, we reused the original hinges.  

As the door is nearly always in the open position, it has scalloped copper detail to protect its top and ledges from the worst of the weather.  To secure it closed, Chris made a tiny oak turn key which he referred to as a turn buckle - funny how these old fashioned names vary in rural areas.  The front of the door has its very own miniature lead pear which I had made the week before for absolutely no good reason but I figured it would find a home somewhere!!

I've just checked back to find that this original 'House for Hens' was purchased from Edward Tate of Shropshire in 2010 and is a medieval style pole house.  I can hardly believe we've been keeping hens for so long!  The house looks in pretty good shape for 11 years!  The pole has been replaced as has its base but the house is maintained with creosote and paint.  Very many eggs have been laid inside it!

I should perhaps mention that there were very noisy objections from Simone who chose the moment of installation to go up to lay. She spent the entire time squawking and clucking from the nest box!!

'No-Chris' Saturday!

 

Unusually, it was a 'no-Chris' Saturday but, as it was so dry, I topped the grass in the orchard before setting about border work.  First up were the 2 Dragon Borders where I cut down dead perennials and had a good weed and tidy up as well as pulling out 100's of wild Hellebore seedlings which are all disease ridden and I don't want it spreading to the beautiful hybrids which are all coming into flower.  Then across to the Woodland Border to try to remove a lot of ivy - not easy to do without ripping the heads of both Snowdrops and Hellebores!

  Note to self: must start weeding much earlier!!

Extreme Smugness!

Compost bay emptied,  current compost turned & moved into 2nd bay, borders all mulched, Wisteria pruned and ferns cut back AND all finished on 5th February!!  An absolute record!!  Mostly thanks to a dry January  and of course: Chris!!  Most years it's been too wet to complete these jobs this early and it's so nice to be ahead of the game when the snowdrops are up and Hellebores coming into flower.  There's always so much to look forward to!

Both of us finished yesterday's jobs feeling very smug indeed!! I must say; the Fernery Path looks so dramatically different at this time of year. Gone is the lush and shady appearance of fern fronds framing the path edges with Snowdrops and Hellebores all sleeping over summer.

These 2 photos are exactly the same view - one taken in August and the other in February.

Midlands Regional Winner - THE NATION'S FAVOURITE GARDEN.

We are thrilled with the arrival of our beautiful winning Haddon Stone plaque and can hardly wait to install it in a suitably prominant place in the garden!

 

Cairn Curve to Curly Whirly Corner

 The re-routed service path is looking really lovely since Chris mulched it with wood chip.  I really am quite thrilled with it!  No more muddy paths and a short cut to the compost heap from the Hennery!!  The new stretch of path runs fron the cairn to Curly Whirly Corner.  There was enough to put a layer in the Henclosure for the girls to scratch around in.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the garden, snowdrops leaves are pushing through, bulbs are appearing and all despite a week of frosty days with mists and fog.  That's one of the joys of gardenong - there's always things to look forward to every day in every season!

Up the Garden Path!!

 New Year garden work seems to involve nothing but path work - one way or another! Either re-routing paths or power washing stepping stones.  In winter York flag stones are perilous when wet as they're covered in algae and like walking on ice! Chris began by power washing the Fernery Path stepping stones.  

That was after we'd pruned a monster Rosa Moyessii and decided to re-route the Service Path around bothe the cairn and the Moyessii.  This involved removing a dead lilac, moving ferns and Pulmonarias and stealing logs from the log store with which to edge it.  All we need now is another load of wood chip!!

Here's to 2022!!

 

When Head Gardener is on Light Duties!

 Head Gardener has been on light duties these past 2 weeks. As wrapping Christmas presents and sorting Christmas decoarations is allowed, that's what she's been doing.  Meanwhile, Chris has been putting up lights in the garden and pruning roses to avoid wind rock over winter. By doing a bit of forging in the garden and spraying some dries Aliums, I did a big table arrngement and a spray for the Elgar door - both of which use ancient decorations faithfully stored every year!  The Aga looks quite festive and decorations mean no dusting until they all come down!!

BIG Boy's Toys !

Another dry day for garden work when Chris arrived with his beast of a stump grinder!  I could immediately see he meant BUSINESS!  We had 2 tree stumps to grind out and down in the Henclosure, another 4 big Bamboos.  

Having watched it make mincemeat of the first apple tree stump, I was itching to have a little go!  My turn came with the cherry stump.  It was more of a nibble but at least I was allowed to have a go!  Chris, of course, handled it like a pro and it was soon on to the bamboos.  What would have undoubtedly taken the whole day if he had been digging by hand, took  just over an hour!  What an amazing machine.

More soil was removed and the entire Henclosure levelled in readiness for a thick carpet of woodchip.  Now I'm wondering what to plant in the way of low evergreen and far less invasive shrubs.

Actually a Sarcococca springs to mind.  I wonder if one would survive chickens???

Back to 'Earth'!

 

Despite basking in the glory of our surprise win, garden work has been continuing pretty much as usual for the time of year.  It's been back down to earth literally!  The lower border has been transformed!  All the flopping gernaiums have been removed and all the Euonymous and Box have been clipped and underplanted with Persicaria affinis - much lower growing and more compact and dense.  It's all ready for mulching with compost if ever leaf clearing finishes!

The Dragon Borders have been cut down and cleared as have the borders in the Herb Garden.  I even topped the main lawn - making the most of this dry and sunny spell.  Unusual in November!  The tulips are all in their post and the wallflowers are all planted.  Apart from Lower Border work, Chris has missed a few Saturdays, unusually.   I've just been working alone - well not quite as I've had Robins for company!

The colours have been and still are (for now) AMAZING and we've really been enjoying the autumn changes.  The Acers never fail to impress and this year are exceptional!  The photo below is an Acer palmatum Seiryu I brought from my previous garden and planted 16 years ago.