'This week I 'ave bin mostly...............'

......taking advantage of the absence of rain!


Not just dry weather but actually warm and sunny with no need for coats or jackets - well not until later.  Even the temporary moat by the new wall had dried up!  For the first time in weeks, the ground was dry enough to allow us to get some real border work done - as long as it was on tip toe!  It was out with the wheelbarrow loaded with tools and to work dead heading, weeding and tidying the lower border.  This is quite a long border with a service path at the back.  It has little Euonymous shrubs for winter colour between perennial plants with Acers and a big old Prunus at the back.  The Sarcococca is all in full bloom and the fragrance from such tiny insignificant flowers was absolutely outstanding as it wafted around in the warm sunshine.

As soon as the wheelbarrow was emptied of tools, along came Mr. Robin who sat on the side watching closely.  As the barrow was filled with debris, he kept returning and at one point hopped down beneath the pile of cuttings and didn't fly out when the next handful was gently placed on top! Little wonder he's called The Gardeners' Friend.

Newly topped grass on a high cut.

The constant wet weather meant that Sedums had been beaten down and were wet and slimy instead of standing upright displaying their dried seed heads which are encouraged to leave for winter.  Geraniums, Lychnis, Peonies all received a good tidy up and the border was forked over and edged.  Down by the summer house, where the Acanthus was taking over, a machete would have been an ideal weapon.  The mild winter meant that much of the top growth was either flattened, flopped or just wet and slimy with with untidy seed heads leaning precariously.  Normally at this time of year; cold winter weather has killed off all the leaves.  Anyway, that border too, enjoyed a good tidy up including removal of stray brambles and a dead rose.  As this year's compost heap is so full, Al had a good bonfire and burned all our rubbish as well as all the Christmas greenery.  All the wood ash produced by his burning finds its way back into the soil usually around fruit trees and raspberries  We can't wait to empty last year's compost and mulch the borders before the weeds get going..

I did have a little a go with Chris's new blower but, it was so ferocious, leaves went everywhere and I was just blown round in circles!  I liked his old one best.  The last job of the day was to move Rudolph into the garden next to Clarissa and give his antlers a prune.  Actually, that wasn't quite the last job.After we picked up all the, by now, scattered tools around the garden (in the dark) and put them away, Chris and I retired to the workshop and inscribed another couple of finger posts for Al's sign.

Rudolph meets Clarissa!

The dry weather continued - 3 days without rain now!!  It also remained surprisingly mild and warm enough to work without jackets or body warmers again and, all day.  It's been so mild in fact; the grass has been growing - not what you expect in January. It was dry enough for the grass to be topped and the lawns edged.  It's not like mowing as the blades are too high - more like hoovering!  The grass is left an even length and rid of all the tussocks.  A bit of a bonus was the fact that Homebase was offering some really decent mixed F1 hybrid Wallflower plants at £1.99 reduced from £3.50 for 6, more containers were filled with little green bargains and their tops pinched out to encourage bushy growth - all with spring in mind ........if we have one!

Some of our song birds seem to be enjoying this mild spell.  A charm (yes, isn't that a perfect collective noun? Full marks to the person who came up with that one! ) of 8 Goldfinches, 2 Redpolls and 1 Greenfinch were all squabbling on the bird feeders.  Sadly, we have a resident hawk who has been spotted picking off our much loved and defenceless little songbirds and thanks to the do-gooders of this world, we are helpless to protect them.


Talking of vermin, we are surrounded by numerous Buzzards mewling over the surrounding apple orchards: one of which carries a conviction for an assassination attempt on one of our chickens; namely Amelia.  Luckily, Amelia was too heavy and was dropped before Mr. Big Bad Buzzard gained too much height.  Apart from the claw wounds in her back, and the loss of both dignity and a few feathers, she was none the worse for her near death experience.  Nonetheless the protectors of these flying predators who try to convince us they eat nothing but carrion leave us all totally unable to defend the defenceless.  

Mistletoe Management

Rather than dispose of our mistletoe on the compost heap, I have hung up bunches in the fruit trees for an avian buffet.  Maybe they'll even germinate some seeds for us.  I did manage to grow some in my last garden but nothing here - so far.

Yet more rain!

Sign writing in the workshop on yet another rainy Saturday.

Al's legible signpost in 2010

What with weather constraints, Christmas preparations for Swiss Family visitors and now even more rain; the gardeners have been somewhat confined to barracks.  The ground is utterly saturated and is just singing. Much of Worcestershire is under water as the Severn has flooded for the umpteenth time. I dread having to walk down to the chickens as the grass at the Hen Pen entrance is looking so worn and muddy.  Luckily all the wood chip we put down for the girls is keeping them free from trench foot!  There has been absolutely no opportunity for any much needed border work for weeks and weeks now - sigh.

Not to be outdone, the gardeners have been busy in the workshop with sign writing!  Al's sign post which he had made using and old oak gate had become so weathered that few of the places or distances were legible.  How could we easily engrave place names on to and old signpost?  We gave the matter long and serious thought.  Pyrography using a soldering iron had failed as had using a black permanent marker.  Chiselling out so many words was beyond us - even if we could spare the time.  If we used the router, we wouldn't see what we were trying to write.  

Eventually Chris came up with a brilliant plan.  Why not put the router bit in the pillar drill and one person (me!) operate the drill while the other (Chris!) manipulated the sign beneath?  After a few practice runs, we decided to give it a go.  Even if we were capable, we didn't want a perfect machined precision finish.  A rustic look is so much more at home in this garden and a rustic finish is what we achieved!  At least it should remain legible for a little longer.

A partially restored & legible signpost in pieces

Using Google Earth to measure the distances means that we have amazing accuracy.  The measurements are literally taken from building to building.  In fact, the distances depict a far greater accuracy than the layout of the engraved letters!  Let's hope we don't make any spelling errors!

A Real 'Raindeer!'

Our Christmas 'Raindeer!'

This one was made in the rain and the dark by car headlights!  He's mostly Beech with antlers made from Acer prunings.  He's also sturdy enough to be sat on.  Anyway, he stands outside our gate and hopefully Zach & Elissa will like him!  I need to find him a red nose.

Making Reindeer in the Rain

The Pugh Herd

Rudolph himself

Meanwhile, the 'other' Chris has been really busy. He has made all 9 of Father Christmas's reindeers, decorated them and has named each one.  The entire herd is sitting on his lawn outside his house.  Delightfully rustic and so much nicer than garish lights and coloured plastic!

Terrace Extension

Unloading the bricks

When a builder needs more materials, it could only be Border Counties Reclamation - again!  After a bit of a false start (ahem) David Swire delivered the right bricks and the right numbers!  The skip, building sand, concreting sand and top soil is now accompanied by 3 pallets of reclaimed bricks on the drive.

Before and............

Chris got to work straight away and has already built the curved retaining wall.  Cutting some old (personally reclaimed) land drains in half, he built in a mini pyramid with them in the centre of the curve.  It looks really quaint.  Because of the frosty conditions, it was all covered up with bubble wrap, plastic sheeting, cardboard, hessian and boards. He even moved all the unused bricks off the drive to give us a little more room.

....after the thaw.

Following the thaw and yet more heavy rain we now have a moat where we'd rather not have one! Or, if we have any more frosts, we'll have a mini ice rink!

Let there be lights....

........for Christmas

The recycled shed.

Heroes of DSM: Joe and Owen have weathered extremely low temperatures to put in lanterns and lighting. Their hard work has really paid off.  Even the Hen Pen has lights - until 10:30pm anyway.  No Picasa edits - the Bamboo really does have a green uplighter.  In reality, they look even more magical than the photos suggest.  Even so, I think Dave should put some of these on his blog under the garden lighting tab (ahem!)  Some other trees are now uplit but it was too cold for me to take any more photos.

Laying by night?

Kay's arbour

We also had the pleasure of Chris's company and he too toiled away digging and mixing a ton of concreting sand and cement to put in as footing for the new retaining wall.  He even started brick laying.  I think he was warmer than me sitting in a sunny conservatory writing Christmas cards!  He certainly needed all the light he could find as work continued in the dark as usual!  As if that wasn't bad enough, he had to put air in a nearly flat tyre then go home and remove the wheel to grease a wheel bearing in the freeeeeeeeeeezing darkness!

Laying bricks in darkness

More photos at: https://picasaweb.google.com/100788191989823327785/LetThereBeLight