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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!

Perfect Natural Greenhouse Shading

Natural greenhouse shading

Since inheriting this vine and building the greenhouse around it; I've been growing it on for over 10 years and I must say that it makes the perfect shading.  It didn't originally grow along the roof and had to be pruned right back when the previous greenhouse was replaced.

In summer when the sun is just too hot and likely to scorch plants inside, it provides a natural leafy dappled shade.  In winter when maximum light is required, it considerately drops all its leaves.  Now, just how much easier is that compared with buying and installing shades or using the dreaded white paint on the glass and then having to scrub it all off at the end of the summer?  I haven't found a single disadvantage - yet.  The white grapes are perfectly sweet and edible although are full of pips.  If I don't get around to picking them all, I find that the greenhouse is filled with wasps so I try to remember that job!  In the event of shading becoming a little too heavy, a little judicious pruning solves that issue immediately and this is so vigorous, it grows a mile a minute!

Cuckoos & Swallows at P.T.C.

Our cuckoos arrived on 21st April (the 12th is the earliest) this year and we've been listening to their calls ever since.  They even woke us up this morning and never seem to tire of incessant calling.  I'd love to say these  photo are ours but, alas, not.  We've seen them loads of times - up in the oak tree at the end of the drive and also on the telephone wires but I just didn't have a camera to hand.  There's something quite special working in a garden with cuckoos for company.

This morning, I saw our first swallows!  It's been a few years since they actually nested at PTC and we live in hopes they'll build here again.  In the meantime, we love to see them swooping and dipping, catching insects on the wing and listening to their animated twittering! It's just so incredible that these birds travel so far just for a season and then undertake such immense distances all over again.