SIGN OF THE TIMES!

Another mini completed project was updating our old garden sign post.. A complete 2 man labour of love as we inscribe the letters by using a router bit in a pillar drill.  One man operating the drill and me pushing the oak around to follow letters - WHICH with ancient and such hard oak is far from easy! Curved letters across the grain are the very worst to do!  Some letters are a tad wobbly but at least it's legible.  Unlike the letters, the distances are highly accurate as they have been carefully measured via Google earth and where appropriate, actually from building to building.

PRETTYING UP CONCRETE SLABS!

 

Last day of April already.. despite the freezing weather and constant rain, much has been hapening in the garden despite only havning been able to plant 2 rows of potatoes! Vegetable seed sowing been stalled by the appalling spring weather!  It's been either too wet ot too cold or both!  

Not to be outdone by the weather, other garden projects have been completed!!  The most needed was soil retention around the summerhouse.  Keeping costs down, were were lucky to have Chris Genever on hand who came up with some unwanted slabs so we didn't have to buy many.  The really genius idea was attaching the leftover tops cut from Victorian pather edgers when we were paving around the well last year.  Chris came up with a seriously cunning plan and having cut off the corneres, he then angles each edging top to fir and alighn all around the summer hous!  After all - concrete slabs aren't much to look st and these look quite pretty for a sort of 'out of the way' spot in the garden. One thing's for certain, it beats having soil against the wooden sides of the summerhouse and makes access for painting and maintenance so much easier!

We liked our look so much, we even wondered if there shouldn't be a market for slabs with a pattered edge.  After all, soil retention is such a common use for them!

Never Nothing to Do!!

 Never a week passes without fairly major seasonal jobs and/or repairs taking place in and around the garden.  This week, we had the pleasure of Chris Genever's company for a day which resulted in the empty compost bay being lined with reclaimed corrugated iron, a blockage in the pond pump removed and a connection tap being replaced, the potting shed door repaired, a couple of tiles in the greenhouse cut & laid and the rear door on the House for Hens repaired.

Chris Pugh and I barrowed a load of wood chip down to the Henclosure, Woodland Border path and Nutberry Noak before digging out nearly half a barrow full of Bindweed and Japanese Anemone in order to plant a Euphorbia subs. characias wulfenni Margery Fish Lambrook Gold. (Bindweed never makes the compost bay!)  I have high hopes for this plant following all the trouble we went to!! 

 With the newly lined compost bay, Chris spent the last half hour making a start on turning a year's accumulated compost into it.  Next year, the whole process begins again!

Major Greenhouse Border Preparation

With snow still lying on the ground following 3 days of totally unexpected snowfall - in March meant it was perfect weather to retreat into the greenhouse and sort out the border.  Funny thing was: Chris ended up having to discard layers of clothing as he was expecting outdoor jobs!! 

Now: from day 1, this border has never been a great success. We been disappointed with tomatoes, disappointed with carnations and disappointed with chrysanthemums. Time for action!

Having cleared all the pots aside, we removed all the soil and compost and then dug out another spade's depth of solid clay and marl.  This meant carefully detaching Ed's passion flower from it.'s support,  moving it  aside and very, VERY carefully repotting it (in a classy vintage clay pot) while keeping it attached to its cane!!!  The idea is for it to extend it roots out from the pot and into the border.

Having barred out deep holes and filled them with grit to aid drainage, we refilled the border with lovely rich loamy soil. It was then time for a major clean up.  That meant washing all the paintwork and floor tiles before mving all the pots and plants back!

Chris barrowed out and then back in about 12 barrows of soil and clay!   Hear's hoping for a little more success with some tomatoes this year.

Serious Snow in March!

 

 

Having woken to 2" (seen being accurately measured with my depth gauges) of snow with more falling, it was

ime to read the seed catalogues and clean out the tool shed!

Surprise Snowfall

  This is definitely a very long way from ideal gardening weather for March!!!

THORNY ISSUES!!

For much of the year, roses are mostly thorns and not much else.  For this reason, ourS are underplanted with Golden Majoram which provides a nice bright carpet and suppresses weeds.  

Over time the marjoram had encroached on the roses a little too much and things were looking a tad congested.  Also, ivy was was beginning to proliferate in the beech hedge. Time to remove all the rose supports for ease of access and clear out the invading ivy and marjoram from around each rose, prune and feed them before mulching with compost.  Chris mastermined marjoram and ivy removal whilst I tackled the thornier side of things and did the pruning.  Of course, Chris wasn't content with just doing roses but did the Top Lawn Border before tackling ivy which had invaded a Philadelphus.

Throughtout the summer months the marjoram is trimmed 2 - 3 times to prevent flopping.  Now, each rose has a circle of bare soil around its base with all herbs cleared away.  The metal supports will be re-sited inside each circle making future marjoram trimming MUCH easier. Let's hope we have even more flowers than last year in our little rose garden!