January Pruning.

A dull overcast and bone chillingly cold Saturday was spent pruning the Wisteria, trimming and cleaning out a conifer and giving the caterpillar a hair cut! The Wisteria is always a bit of a fiddle as it's such a thuggish monster and even though we pruned all the whippy side shoots off back in August: with no leaves to hide them; we managed  to find all those we missed in the summer. Weird how they force themselves into the tiniest and narrowest of gaps. Why does nature do that? It would be so much easier to just hang and flop out! 

I'm posting a photo taken in May just to remind me that freezing my socks off on top of a pair of steps really is worth it! Weather permitting: it's the apple trees next week........shiver!

First Jobs of the Year!

Dusk falls on the wood chip carpet.

The log store filling up.

With all the Christmas and New Year excesses coupled with deliveries of both wood chip and logs on the drive the day before Christmas Eve has meant not too many gardening jobs so far this year! While Chris was splitting logs, I was barrowing wood chip down to the Henclosure. I don't like our little flock on cold wet soil and a nice thick carpet of wood chip was called for. Before barrowing in the last few loads of wood chip, Chris dug out all the Bamboo runners - an annual pain of a job but it keeps it in check and stops it taking over the world! We grow it there because it provides summer shade for the girls and they love eating it!

Having done that it was a case of loading, lugging and stacking the split logs.  As the last couple of hours work took place in the dark, I rigged up an extension lead a couple of inspection lamps to help light our way. The day ended with an empty drive, a full log store and very comfortable chickens! Sorted!!

Only a quarter of the load left!

Money Raised for Charity

As an acqaintance enquired how much money Pear Tree Cottage Garden had raised since it began opening for charity, I've been looking back through old records and doing a few sums. Our NGS treasurer confirmed that we have been opening for the National Garden Scheme for 4 years. We have opened for Wichenford Open Gardens which is a biennial event for 5 weekends and the grand total is a whopping £10.000.71p.  Now, for a single very rural garden in the depths of the Worcestershire countryside, I find that figure pretty surprising!

Good news for the start of a new year!

......And then the sun came out!!

The main lawn

Shed of the Year runner-Up!

For one single whole day, the garden looked utterly magical in its blanket of snow glittering in the frosty sunshine. Despite it being 10" deep, how could I resist going out with a camera? Everything was utterly transformed and so silent. Difficult to even imagine lawn mowing! Here's a link to more snowy garden pictures: Sun & Snow at PTC! If you know the garden, they're absolutely worth a look.

The Henclosure.

A seasonal video from Pear Tree Cottage

Yet More Snow!

Rob's Retreat

Such is the dramatic overnight change in the garden that, despite the persistent falling snow on the camera lens, I couldn't resist attempting a few fuzzy pictures. When this lot thaws, things are going to be a tad on the soggy side!
With so much snow on its roof, unusually, the greenhouse is really rather dark  inside but, at least the heater is maintaining the temperature just above freezing.

The Top Terrace

An unusually dark greenhouse!

Snow at PTC

The Henclosure

A festive & snowy barrel

It's looking VERY festive here at PTC. We've had about 8" of snow and the garden looks amazing! It's totally silent as the snow always muffles sounds. Definitely no gardening jobs - that is, apart from spotting that the tall Bamboos we're bent over and touching the ground under the weight of snow. When I knocked if off, they sprang upright ferociously and covering me in even more snow!

The chickens have the Hennery in which to stay cosy. It's their very own conservatory and they had extra rations today as it's their very first experience of snow.

The Phone Box