Sarracenia Purpurea in flower

Well, how could I not photograph this????  It's such a pretty flower considering the plant is insectivorous and feasts on flies!

Another radical tidy-up!

New view!

Well!  Despite all the weather threw at us, we managed to tidy up the garden in time for our garden club visitors and it stopped raining in time for their visit!  Ok - so it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be and I was thrilled to see an old AOS friend who kindly helped serve the teas.  They all said nice things and appeared to enjoy themselves and on Saturday it was back to major and more radical jobs like the removal of a fairly big Photinia and some Dogwoods around the base of, what has become known as, 'The Red Tree'.  It a biggish old Prunus which, in it's early days suffered major butchery.  We lifted its canopy off some Acers and thinned it out a little and removed the Forget-me-nots from around its base.  A neighbouring Viburnum also  got a face-lift. We now have more views across the orchards to Martley Hillside.

More elbow room for fish!

The pond enjoyed a major clearout with Chris donning on his waders and thinning out the King-cups by removing about 2/3rds of them as well as weeding around the waters' edge.  The pond now appears much bigger and in more proportion.  Chris cooled off too!  There's never a good time of year for pond tidy ups and I figured that having enjoyed so many King-cups in bloom, they could be cleared out before the water lilies flowered.  After such a mild winter, it was really nice to see a flower bud on the Arum Lily and also, my Skunk Cabbage also survived a winter.

The last jobs were tipping back the Bay tree and thinning the canopy of another Prunus along the greenhouse path - a more major job.  Many crossing and rubbing branches were removed and instead of a dense and dark canopy, we now a more gentle dappled light beneath what is now a most attractively shaped specimen. Huge amounts of rubbish were generated and the day was rounded off with a major clear up!

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Hedgecutting can be such a messy business!

With all the heavy rain, there has been little opportunity to tidy up the garden in readiness for a visit  by Ombersley Gardening Club.  On Sunday, Chris decided to cut the hedges.  It's not such a bad job until he gets to Thyme Square.  On the steps is where I hide all the scruffy spring flowering pots which, at this time of year, are full of dead, dying yellow and brown Daffodil and Hyacinth leaves!  All of these had to be moved along with loads of other pots containing Dahlias etc etc etc . Moving all the pots was a big enough job and then all the hedge cuttings fall everywhere and worse still is clearing them all up without disturbing any of the gravel between the path slabs and bricks.

 

Now - our Chris is a bit of a dab hand at using a plastic rake.  He picks up huge rakefuls of rubbish using his foot to load the rake and then with a deft aim towards the barrow, deposits a large pile of cuttings neatly inside!  It's like picking up a tennis ball using the racket head and the side of one's foot!  Try as I do, I have only been able to master one of these actions and sadly, it's not picking up hedge cuttings!  So I raked and collected by hand and then Chris went round with the blower and all the gravel stayed put and all the remnants disappeared!  When I use the blower, I manage to blow rubbish all round in circles or all over the lawn!  

I'll leave you to decide which are the before and after photos!!

Mini Pleaching and another Buzzard Attack

The girls have had their beech hedge trimmed.  The top has to be kept below the level of their electric fence to ensure it doesn't short out and the base has had its skirts lifted so that we can see the girls and they can see us!  It looks as if it's been slightly pleached.

The girls  at roost

NOT that an electric fence prevents buzzard attacks and one dropped in last week grabbed Persephone in its talons and lifted her out and over the hedge before dropping her in the garden! AND all this happened under my very nose as I was only yards away!  There was utter pandemonium in the Henclosure as mass panic had broken out. Their cacophony could be heard all over the garden!  

Of course buzzards enjoy maximum protection which explains why our skies are now full of them and their mewling.  Little is safe from their cruel talons and evil beaks and we have absolutely no defence.  Thank goodness Percy was too heavy for this buzzard to carry off and I was around at the time.  The moral of this story is to keep chickens well fed and heavy!  Oh, and in case you're wondering which one is Persephone; that's her on the far right - having an early night in.  Apart from suffering the fright of her life and the loss of a few feathers, she lives and lays.  This is the second buzzard attack suffered by our girls and let's hope, the last!

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!