HAWTHORN RESCUE!

We took an impulse decision to remove an old and rampant rose which was absolutely suffocating a hawthorn tree.  In all the years it had been there, the rose had never once born a single flower.  A real dog in a manger as it also prevented the hawthorn from flowering!  Chris never hesitates when it comes to anything difficult or challenging and this was both!  The stems were hugely think with vicious thorns.  It was the Putin of roses!  We filled 2 bulk bags and 2 wheelbarrows with chopped up rose.  The little hawthorn tree can now breathe again and can see light!! Whilst these photos demonstrate before and after: as nothing is in leaf, they don't demonstrate just how much darkness the poor hawthorn suffered!

! should add that last autumn's homemade hawthorn jelly was the best ever.  Maybe this year, I can make even more!

More Recycling in Favour of Chickens

On possibly the wildest gardening day ever, Chris (Genever) and I braved storm Eunice to make a new door for the House for Hens!  The old ply door was really disreputable.  The the ply was delaminating and it was falling to pieces. 

The new door has been expertly crafted from a recycled and very old pine shelf.  It is a traditionally styled ledge and brace door but in miniature!.  The edges of each panel have been chamfered and finished with my favourite mixture of 50 - 50 linseed oil and pure turpentine.  Obviously, we reused the original hinges.  

As the door is nearly always in the open position, it has scalloped copper detail to protect its top and ledges from the worst of the weather.  To secure it closed, Chris made a tiny oak turn key which he referred to as a turn buckle - funny how these old fashioned names vary in rural areas.  The front of the door has its very own miniature lead pear which I had made the week before for absolutely no good reason but I figured it would find a home somewhere!!

I've just checked back to find that this original 'House for Hens' was purchased from Edward Tate of Shropshire in 2010 and is a medieval style pole house.  I can hardly believe we've been keeping hens for so long!  The house looks in pretty good shape for 11 years!  The pole has been replaced as has its base but the house is maintained with creosote and paint.  Very many eggs have been laid inside it!

I should perhaps mention that there were very noisy objections from Simone who chose the moment of installation to go up to lay. She spent the entire time squawking and clucking from the nest box!!

'No-Chris' Saturday!

 

Unusually, it was a 'no-Chris' Saturday but, as it was so dry, I topped the grass in the orchard before setting about border work.  First up were the 2 Dragon Borders where I cut down dead perennials and had a good weed and tidy up as well as pulling out 100's of wild Hellebore seedlings which are all disease ridden and I don't want it spreading to the beautiful hybrids which are all coming into flower.  Then across to the Woodland Border to try to remove a lot of ivy - not easy to do without ripping the heads of both Snowdrops and Hellebores!

  Note to self: must start weeding much earlier!!

Extreme Smugness!

Compost bay emptied,  current compost turned & moved into 2nd bay, borders all mulched, Wisteria pruned and ferns cut back AND all finished on 5th February!!  An absolute record!!  Mostly thanks to a dry January  and of course: Chris!!  Most years it's been too wet to complete these jobs this early and it's so nice to be ahead of the game when the snowdrops are up and Hellebores coming into flower.  There's always so much to look forward to!

Both of us finished yesterday's jobs feeling very smug indeed!! I must say; the Fernery Path looks so dramatically different at this time of year. Gone is the lush and shady appearance of fern fronds framing the path edges with Snowdrops and Hellebores all sleeping over summer.

These 2 photos are exactly the same view - one taken in August and the other in February.

Midlands Regional Winner - THE NATION'S FAVOURITE GARDEN.

We are thrilled with the arrival of our beautiful winning Haddon Stone plaque and can hardly wait to install it in a suitably prominant place in the garden!

 

Cairn Curve to Curly Whirly Corner

 The re-routed service path is looking really lovely since Chris mulched it with wood chip.  I really am quite thrilled with it!  No more muddy paths and a short cut to the compost heap from the Hennery!!  The new stretch of path runs fron the cairn to Curly Whirly Corner.  There was enough to put a layer in the Henclosure for the girls to scratch around in.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the garden, snowdrops leaves are pushing through, bulbs are appearing and all despite a week of frosty days with mists and fog.  That's one of the joys of gardenong - there's always things to look forward to every day in every season!

Up the Garden Path!!

 New Year garden work seems to involve nothing but path work - one way or another! Either re-routing paths or power washing stepping stones.  In winter York flag stones are perilous when wet as they're covered in algae and like walking on ice! Chris began by power washing the Fernery Path stepping stones.  

That was after we'd pruned a monster Rosa Moyessii and decided to re-route the Service Path around bothe the cairn and the Moyessii.  This involved removing a dead lilac, moving ferns and Pulmonarias and stealing logs from the log store with which to edge it.  All we need now is another load of wood chip!!