A TRUNDLE IN THE GARDEN

. . . on a dull day.

We come back from a holiday in the Outer Hebrides and the grass needs mowing, the beds need weeding etc etc. 

S the gardener has been and cut back the sallows using the trunks to edge the paths.

I see house martins. A bird flies out of an old nest above the extension window - it is a sparrow.

I put in both sorts of broccoli and a few extra sweet peas. The other tender plants in the shed - ammi, cosmos etc will have to wait. It is still cold. A friend E M who has been keeping records for over 40 years says that April was by far the coldest on record so I am wary.

R wants the pond plants thinning out. The rhododendrons by the top fence are too big. Anyway, I think they may be ponticum and so must be well trimmed back or go.

I have never seen so much flower on the redcurrants. We will have fat blackbirds and thrushes later in the year.

The rhubarb is in fine fettle but the asparagus is disappointing so far - possible the cold spring?

Time for the trundle - out from the house and down under the cherry tree with the bird feeders where the forget-me-nots have self seeded again splendidly. There is still blossom on the pear and greengage, the crab apple and, my favourite of all, the Bramley apple.

Passing the old compost heap where the white honesty is self sown (and goosegrass - so everywhere I have spread the compost the weed is growing) I head for the wood and rhododendrons and azaleas, and scent.

 

And so up to the bluebells. 

I find yet another horse chestnut seedling spawned from the big tree next door that hangs over the top clearing. One of these seedlings (conkerlings?) is now twelve feet high.

Coming back I pass the longer grass on the upper banking, was daffodils, now camassias and cowslips.

There are less of the former today as several lambs wriggled under the field fence and helped themselves. I have put a plank down to close the gap.

Back at the house I see the first welsh poppies, well the orange version rather than the wild yellow, another plant that is allowed to self sow.

The violas in the pots by the back door are thriving and the magnolia stellata just flowers on and on.

R has been weeding, my excellent co-gardener. I try to please her - the convolvulus cneorum is ok but next to it I have failed with the lavateria - looks like it is dead. Perhaps I should wear shorts more like Ben Fogle who was sitting at the next table on our holiday in Tarbert, Isle of Harris.

And I still have to decide what to do with all the box plants in pots . .

INVASION OF THE BUNNY BREEDERS

Just finished breakfast (2 Weetabix) and looked out of the kitchen window to find this fat, healthy animal eating the honesty leaves. We have rabbits in the field below the house, in the horse paddock next door and in the garden - I am always searching for new burrows.

Cuddly little things are they not?! 😩

To move on - I have just moved the rampant Green Alkanet brought back from Plockton in Scotland as it was taking over the cutting bed. R loves the flowers but it can be an aggressive pest. The plants have been put in behind the fence down to the Wendy House where the soil is almost non existent - it is mainly hardcore. I have picked the first camellia for R and it is now opening. It is such a shame they are not scented - so there is a challenge to plant breeders.

The quince has really got going now as have other shrubs. When I was digging up the alkanet I found four cuttings and it took a while (as I had not labelled them) to realise they were hydrangea Annabelle. So two were moved to the banking below the house and two left in situ.

Daffodils are coming on well and wild primroses all over the top bank.








It is a time of lush new growth especially the roses.

The sit on mower inertia has been solved by attaching the battery to a trickle charger overnight but we will see if that finally solves the matter. I have had both mowers serviced and received the bill - they seem to have replaced everything!

Go on - talk about coronavirus - surely there is more than enough on the tv and radio. Masks are of use where someone has the virus to stop them passing it on but not much good to stop you getting it.    Having had 'flu' in 1957, remembering 2 weeks off school and being a bit decrepit it is likely we will all get it and the odds on survival are pretty good so we watch this space. Perhaps I should buy shares in funeral directors? Perhaps turn the top lawn into a plant your loved one here? At a price of course.

The world really needs a virus to get rid of half the people in the world, or more, but that is not going to happen. 
It is a great diverter from other political issues - Boris must be loving this let alone Don and Vlad.

So what I want to know is will our holidays in Wales and Scotland be at risk? Do I need insurance?

My DW has her own blog at https://roseydarbishire.com. The last one was about Ben Fogle which has prompted me to add a new word to the English language - to fogle, v, to go to faraway places.