The trouble with gardeners............................

The kind of visitors that don't notice docks or nettles!

.......................is, that they tend to know about gardening!  Why should I worry?  Because I have a party of 20 garden club members coming to look round the garden next Thursday - AAAARGH!  They will see all the docks and nettles I haven't found time to weed.  They will notice my motley collection of pea sticks. They will see my freshly (Chelsea) chopped hardy Geraniums and Lamium.  They are expecting perfect homemade Victoria sponges (which I rather rashly promised).  They have just visited The Rt. Hon The Lord Michael Heseltine's garden - gulp!  Am I worried?  Well; half of me feels that they'll just have to take us as we are - nettles, docks and all.  The other half of me is in a complete panic as, the log shelter still isn't finished and the Victoria sponges will all be a disaster and, what about those docks and nettles?????!!!  HELP!!!!

Peas but no sticks

Improvised pea sticks

Pea sowing is a little late this year owing to a complete dearth of pea sticks!!  So with a little home improvisation and the odd idea from a certain builder, we used a combination of concrete reinforcing mesh and dogwood stems (reserved following their March prune.)  Almost anything would be better than the dreaded plastic netting!  It'll be interesting to see how they hold up!  Oh, and before you ask - the variety is, of course, Onwards!

Perfect Natural Greenhouse Shading

Natural greenhouse shading

Since inheriting this vine and building the greenhouse around it; I've been growing it on for over 10 years and I must say that it makes the perfect shading.  It didn't originally grow along the roof and had to be pruned right back when the previous greenhouse was replaced.

In summer when the sun is just too hot and likely to scorch plants inside, it provides a natural leafy dappled shade.  In winter when maximum light is required, it considerately drops all its leaves.  Now, just how much easier is that compared with buying and installing shades or using the dreaded white paint on the glass and then having to scrub it all off at the end of the summer?  I haven't found a single disadvantage - yet.  The white grapes are perfectly sweet and edible although are full of pips.  If I don't get around to picking them all, I find that the greenhouse is filled with wasps so I try to remember that job!  In the event of shading becoming a little too heavy, a little judicious pruning solves that issue immediately and this is so vigorous, it grows a mile a minute!

Cuckoos & Swallows at P.T.C.

Our cuckoos arrived on 21st April (the 12th is the earliest) this year and we've been listening to their calls ever since.  They even woke us up this morning and never seem to tire of incessant calling.  I'd love to say these  photo are ours but, alas, not.  We've seen them loads of times - up in the oak tree at the end of the drive and also on the telephone wires but I just didn't have a camera to hand.  There's something quite special working in a garden with cuckoos for company.

This morning, I saw our first swallows!  It's been a few years since they actually nested at PTC and we live in hopes they'll build here again.  In the meantime, we love to see them swooping and dipping, catching insects on the wing and listening to their animated twittering! It's just so incredible that these birds travel so far just for a season and then undertake such immense distances all over again.

Outgoing Urns

With help, urns and pots have been moved out of the greenhouse and empty ones planted up with the phormiums which spent the winter in the greenhouse. When the weather warms up even more, I'll pop something trailing around them.  The succulents are also now exposed to the May elements. The trouble is with the big plants and urns is that there's no way I can harden them off. They come straight out of the relative heat of the greenhouse into whatever the weather throws at them. It's the same with the tree fern and the lemon tree which over winter in the conservatory. No way can they go into a cold frame first it's make or break!  I even dared to put out a couple of pretty geraniums but they do have the shelter of alcoves in a sunny wall.  Now the pots are out, there's room for tomato plants in the greenhouse - at last!!

'That time of year...................'

Young apple blossom

With all the building and construction going on, the grass kept growing and flower buds opening.  The surrounding orchards are now full of apple blossom and the garden is a haze of blue Forget-me-nots. The big blowsy tree paeonies are looking quite splendid and the few remaining Wisteria blooms which managed to escape the cruel beaks of the sparrows drape elegantly filling the air with perfume.  There is even more fragrance down by the Hennery as the Lilacs are all out in bloom.  It's just that perfect time of year.............sigh!

Tree Paeony

New Gates

Old gates.....

The new (old) stone piers and gates are finished and, rarely have I had such fun designing and helping to make anything.  It must be a freaky creative gene but they are exactly as I pictured they would be and just a bit prettier and more detailed than the old rather more basic/utilitarian style.  The stone used for the piers is a complete mixture of type, size, shape and colour.  Whilst it's easy to draw designs and pictures or choose a particular stone for a place in the pier, the real skill is actually laying the stones and the spirit level was in constant use!  Although difficult to see, the 4 antique hinges were a present from Chris P.  Building the gates around the hinges and hanging them across sloping ground with upright piers was about as tricky as it gets - hence a pair of cosmetic uprights on the piers.  The wood is Elm and I learnt more about planing and chamfering!  Once again, drawing the designs was easy the easy part - making them on the garage floor was both the clever and the fun part! 

 Having hung the gates; fixing a drop bolt and making an Elm draw bolt with (red) keepers from left over bits of metal were the finishing touches before the inevitable coat of creosote in the interests of preservation.  Thanks to Chris for his patience and skills! Hopefully, we will source an enamel sign with PTC's name on it to fit the centre of the old letter box.

...new gates!