Looks Fab - Smells Awful!

Chris grows these spectacular huge lilies in his garden and brought one to show us.  It looks like a Dragon Lily and has a dark purple and velvety spathe and looks sort of sinister.  It emits a fairly powerful and unpleasant odour rather like decomposing flesh.  I have been surprised how well it's lasting in water.  For the purposes of scale, the vase is 4 inches square! Can anyone out there identify it?

Tale of Two Tanks!

In a dull and shady corner we now have Hostas where there was once nothing at all.  Presents of 2 galvanised tanks from 2 Chris's meant that we had perfect planters and the dreaded plastic vents imposed by building regulations are now obscured.  You're probably thinking it looks a bright and sunny corner but the photo was taken in the evening when this little area has some low sun for a very short period at this time of year.  Now I had spent ages and ages making piles of odd sized and coloured bricks to support the planted tank but, not only did they look awful but, the whole thing was wobbly and insecure.  The planter has to be raised above the (now obscured) plastic vents in order for it to fit snugly against the walls.  As soon as Chris brought the second and smaller tank, I realised that lifting a galvanised tank full of compost (well - not quite full cos I put polystyrene in the base) was going to pretty heavy. Undaunted, he lifted it aside and onto the chair, placed the base tank and then lifted it back again.  Oh and before you ask about drainage; someone else had already drilled holes in the bottom!  Had it not been for that, I would have used it for water storage.  Another little feature in the garden!  Who's a lucky girl?

Produce Progress!

Meanwhile, our little vegetable patch is looking pretty good with one exception..! Someone is eating the runner beans and I suspect slugs are helping themselves. After the world's wettest winter they are EVERYWHERE and in plague proportions! The Genever lettuces have done well, beetroot, carrot and peas are all up and today the Genever outdoor tomato plants were planted - on the end of the Chrysanths!  PTC has never had outdoor varieties before so it should be interesting.  The indoor plants are doing OK although numbers of trusses may be fewer.

Dare I mention Shed of the Year?

It's just that there really isn't much time left  and The Pear Hut really does need every vote we can muster! Please follow the link to vote:

http://www.readersheds.co.uk/share.cfm?SHARESHED=4675

The Pear Hut

Spotted Orchid Spotted!

Spotted in our own little orchard!  I reckon it could be our  native wild Heath Spotted Orchid (Dactylorhiza maculata).  My policy is never knowingly to mow a Cowslip before July: now, I have another specimen to avoid!

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!