Competition Tomatoes!

With Matt & Sarah up for the weekend, and after all the hard garden work on Saturday, we decided to get a bit competitive with the Genever tomato plants and each of us planted and labelled their named variety.  Each will be treated with the same levels of TLC (promise!) and we shall see whose is the tallest and, more importantly, whose has the biggest yield of fruit!  Note that the canes used in the greenhouse are not the nice new golden canes that Matt and I trimmed, cut and bundled for sale at Open Gardens!

Bringing Bamboo in from the garden

  

Black Bamboo - Phyllostachys Nigra

Homemade towel ladder!

                                                                                                                                    Now,  I wouldn't normally put a bathroom photo on a garden blog! In this case, I just wanted to show a bamboo towel rail that Chris Genever and I made out out of bamboo from the Hen Pen. We cut some black bamboo and canes down in the Henclosure, brought it indoors and made a ladder/rail for towels.  Needless to say, using it immediately meant that; as it dried out the joints became loose so Chris put some small nuts and bolts in them.   Because bamboo splits so easily, cutting with a junior hacksaw left a much tidier finish on the ends. When I have time, I shall bind them with some jute twine. These can be made to any size and with as many or few rungs as required. It's just a glorified ladder. Ours is proving very useful and cost absolutely nuffink at all!  

Enjoying a sunset

Martley Hillside from the summerhouse

The Under Gardener enjoying a sundowner!

One piece of advice Monty Don always gives is to take time to enjoy our gardens especially at this time of year.  Well for once (actually twice) we have enjoyed drinks in the summerhouse and watched the sunset over Hillside.  It's been too glacial to sit on the terrace and the summerhouse is just the perfect spot.  The hawthorn blossom is just wonderfully fragrant as are the lilacs and the scent wafts across in the still cool air.  The wisteria is coming into bloom and fledgling birds are hopping around the garden in the undergrowth.  At this time of year, the changes in the garden happen so fast, it's especially nice to take time to sit and enjoy the sights, sounds and scents.  Yep, Monty's definitely got a point......................sigh.

                                                                                                                     More photos

Owl Attack.

Before winter temperatures returned, Chris made an barn owl!!!  He made it out of a block of Western Red Cedar (which had been sitting on the drive for a few weeks) using his chainsaw - note the carving chainsaw!  It was quite a labour of love and took him most of the afternoon.  The owl spent a couple of weeks in the barn drying out and then I spent a couple of afternoons sanding it before treating him with a 50-50 mix of linseed oil and pure turpentine which really brought out the grain.  For now he sits outside the barn. Does that make him a barn owl?

Late Frosts & Apple Blossom.

Well!  What a dramatic change in the weather.  Until 2 days ago, we had been enjoying a prolonged period of summer temperatures - albeit a bit on the dry side.  In 48 hours, the temperature has plummeted and this morning the garden was white over with frost.  Frost is the very last thing we need with all the fruit trees flowering and potatoes popping up.  Late frosts could mean no apples at all this year and that really would be a great shame.

Hen Gazing & Slug Patrol

Roaming in the cowslips!

Once in a while, they girls are allowed out of their own bamboo garden and given the freedom of the rest of the garden to go out on slug patrol. Last night was one of those occasions and, as it was a sunny evening and the end of a busy day day, we sat in the warm sunshine with a drink watching them  Of course, it's a well known fact that 'Hen Gazing' is a guaranteed cure for any stress related condition!  This is particularly the case on a warm spring evening when all the fruit blossom is out and there is a heavy fragrance in the air.  Watching the sun go down over the hillside with a gin and tonic is also efficacious!

A Get Well Present

These have to be the nicest get well present!  Janine gave them to me a couple of weeks ago - anybody would think she knew me!  A tray of mixed Violas - so many, I was able to fill all these pots plus 2 more not photographed!  Now they are flourishing and will do so for many weeks to come. Thanks very much again Janine.  More Violas

The prettiest of a very pretty collection!