WHAT IS AN ECO-GARDEN?

This is a way to the wood, it meets the steps at the far end. on the right is a mature ash and an elder with a Rambling Rector rose climbing into the upper branches.
Also on the right are brambles and ground elder - tolerated but kept under some sort of vague control.
The wood is full of campion and foxgloves in June.

Enough - what I really want to talk about is - What is and eco-garden?
I have no windmills, solar panels, ground-source heat pumps, most of the garden work is done by hard work and well-rotted horse manure.
I do have machines - mowers and strimmers - but they are necessary for I would need to pay gardeners without them. Having said that I did succumb last year when not so fit to having a strong man strim and clear the bankings and wood (not the wild nettle and bramble beds).
I allow wild flowers and grasses to flourish in selected areas so with the wild we also have some lawn, flower beds and veg and fruit beds.
The garden is a compromise between anarchy and control - neither winning.
I suppose the 'eco' bit means ecologically sound? But to which ecology does this apply - eco and organic are not the same thing.
This leads on to the term 'Green' and all that that conjures in the mind.
In the end all one can do is try to give more to our planet than we take, protect more than destroy.
So, if we get on to the bigger picture the greatest problem the planet faces is us.
We are the plague that threatens the world - come on politicians, address the population problem rather than ignore it.
If the population of Britain was 25 million we could be ecologically sound, self-sufficient, cease to rape out world.

Enough ranting - this is an image of the side of one of my compost heaps - a living willow fence. I know - it might draw much of the goodness from the heap but it is attractive.

Todays news is flash flooding with the stream bursting its banks in several places and total failure in chasing off the squirrels from the bird feeders - it consists of me shouting through the window, "I can see you," and the animal(s) retreating for 5 minutes and then returning - I give up.
The top banking is full of goldfinches and the sun has just come out and is lighting them up.

When the place is so wet all I can do is stay out of the garden and let nature have its wicked way - is that being eco?

I do not know - in the end I do my own thing, enjoy having nature all around me and tinker with it when I feel it is appropriate.

STONES

I have put the picture of the path up into the woodland are first to show how it looks in early spring. The grass is short for we strim some of it in early autumn to encourage wild flowers next year - much like a hay meadow.

The steps, for what they are are made from scaffolding planks discarded by a local company as unsafe and they can be bought for a pound or two each. Wood chippings are used for the path - or were until I broke the shredder.

Now this area is a jungle of wildflowers and long grasses, some beautiful like the wood melick. Paths thread the chaos with single planks to cross the streams.

In then garden the roses are getting underway - this one is Rosa rubifolia because of its purple leaves and resembles the briars growing at the woodland edge and in the hedges. Though we only have the dog rose in the garden the field rose and downy rose do grow nearby.

A friend, (or was it family?), said that I should talk about water. As we have nothing but rain here, except for Monday when I slogged around a wet garden mowing, I should say that shortage is not a problem. Not only do we have a small stream but our own water supply. There are two wells in the garden - not suitable for human consumption and a borehole. It cost a third of the price the water board wanted to charge to bring in the mains supply.

Finally to stones.

STONES

On digging new ground for potatoes I found four tide smooth stones.

“Tom brought them here,” his daughter said, “To edge beds.”

Our stones fill corners, sit on logs, fill old bowls -

slate slabs from Luing inset with cubes of shining pyrites,

rock crystal from Corfu, 1969, still exotic,

gathered from a quarry on our honeymoon,

pebbles from Menorca when the octopus grabbed my ankle

on the snorkelling beach and I yelped with alarm,

white quartz from a crag near Goats Water carried down

the old track to Little Arrow through Bannishead,

heavy haematite looking like half an enormous brain

lugged from Newgale in a backpack, now a doorstop,

small stone eggs harvested from the shore at Roanhead

whilst Jethro and Willow excavated mountains of sand,

pink Ionan granite from the beach opposite Eilean Annraidh

where we stood and stared north at Western Mull and Staffa,

slag from the bloomery by the lake near Napping Tree

where we would swim and cook sausages on a wood fire.

When my father died I took a dark brown stone from Bardsea Beach

and rolled it in my pocket like a Rosary, a comfort.

All these places, memories and events are now collected in our garden,

waiting in the shadows to be seen and surprise me.

WET WET DROWNED

The big mower sleeps.
It rained and the pond overflowed, the small bridges were shoved up in the air and grass flattened.

The crambe lies on then lawn

as does much of the cut-leaved elder, some of the buddleia. The lovage is at an awkward angle but worst of all the twelve foot grey poplar is on its side. Rain and wind coupled with sodden ground and shallow rooting have done it.

I have been out with stakes and ties to hold it upright and then placed heavy stones around the base to stabilise the roots.

Everywhere is full of the sound of rushing water but, fortunately, the house is well above the stream.

It must be summer - midsummer? "With a hey and a hey and a hey nonny-no, the rain it raineth every day!" (Sort of Bill S).

To the more mundane I almost feel sorry for the bedraggled rabbits and squirrels - almost.

We ate both broccoli and curly kale from the garden with our meal last night - freshly picked food tastes so much better and I had to remove only one caterpillar - small white butterfly, I think.

The two compost heaps

by the house are overflowing and it is time to move the contents. In the picture you can see a big builders sack - this is the leafmould container slowly doing its job.

We have had a lot of fledging going on - chaffinches, goldfinches and greenfinches, blue tits, great tits and coal tits, house sparrows and tree sparrows, in the undergrowth skulking robins.

In the wood leaves and twigs are everywhere - it always amazes me how much dead wood an ash tree can carry.

We are gearing up for the grandchildren - pools to fall in, paths in the wood to explore, nettles to sting - you know.

Actually they will probably sit on the floor of their bedroom in a sea of lego oblivious tothe wonders in the garden - but happy.

HAVE YOU EVER EATEN A PIGNUT?

It is raining rabbits and squirrels (no cat, no dog).

The birds, unlike here in the sunshine, are damp and hungry - I wonder if the swallow and martin young will survive as the parents cannot catch food in this weather?

In the garden, wild or tame, there grow wild herbs and other plants that can be harvested.

The stream has abundant watercress - so much it chokes the top pond, and this can only be eaten cooked as the water drains from a field in which cattle and sheep graze - the danger of liver flukes can be ignored but . . . .

We have our patch, or should I say patches, of nettles - vital for wildlife especially insects, a swather of wild garlic and one of ground elder. (The Romans brought that one here.) There are elder trees with flowers and fruit for jam, cordial - elderflower fritters are great, brambles (blackberries), sweet cicely (aniseed flavoured leaves) and Spignel (Meum athamanticum) a dill substitute.

So have you ever eaten a pignut? They are very hot and peppery and grow in the open part of the wood amongst the campion.

The hazels in the hedge that was laid last year will soon have nuts and there grows a wild plum and blackthorn (sloes).

The lovage is out of control and 8 feet high - and still growing.

When we first came my sister-in-law gave us half a dozen damson suckers from their orchard and last year we had our first damsons. The trees were planted traditionally - at the edge of the property except for one near the veg. beds.

The wild roses give us hips - more for itching powder than rose hip syrup. When I was at school we were paid 3 old pence a pound for rosehips and I still have a collectors badge somewhere. Rosehip syrup is full of vitamin C.

Once I made some rowanberry jelly but it was so laxative we had to discard it.

We have not tried collecting birch sap yet and the maple is too small for syrup - one day, perhaps.

Enough, the squirrel has just pulled the bottom of the peanut feeder by the compost heaps - sigh!

TIME FOR A TOUR OF THE GARDEN

The idea for this came to me this afternoon whilst visiting a village nearby under the National Gardens Scheme.

The first image is of the lower garden looking through the white birches and the willow tunnel to the Writing Shed.

Next is the House as seen from the Wood showing the mass of red campion there and one of the many nesting boxes - this one has a great tit in it.

From the wood the stream tumbles through roots down a banking and past some planting including a red Acer and Royal Fern.

We do cut back some of the longer grass here to reveal the water and to make sure the stream does not get clogged.

In the driest weather this can dry up but that has not yet happened this year.

After that there is a panoramic shot of the woodland lawn. The undergrowth on the right, beneath the sycamore tree, is full of wild bluebells in spring whereas the tangle on the left has some willow growing in it which I harvest for hurdles and such. It also has such wild flowers as Hogweed and wild Angelica.

Other flowers in the wood, apart from the campion, include Herb Robert, Pignut and Foxgloves.

Of course there are also brambles and nettles, the latter important for butterflies.

We did try, in the spring, to harvest nettle tops and eat them like spinach but, to be honest, they were pretty poor, at least not to my taste.

At the south east corner of the

garden is bog, stream and two ponds. Here we get toads and frogs, water snails and beetles, water boatmen and pond skaters, damselflies and dragonflies.

The main pond is not lined (hence it sometimes leaks). The boardwalk is made from discarded scaffolding planks.

So now to the vegetable beds and fruit growing. In the picture, from

left to right, are the herb bed and cold frame, gooseberries, red and black currants and raspberries. Beyond this are the vegetable beds, two enclosed in chicken wire to keep the bunnies out, a rhubarb bed and asparagus bed. On the right are fruit trees - Bramley Apple, Victoria Plum, Conference Pear and Greengage. Beyond this is the horse manure heap and compost bins

In front of the house is a very dry banking with a shallow cover of soil over the hard core upon which the house stands. Here grow many grey leaved and aromatic plants, calendulas and geraniums.

Finally the flower beds with roses and paeonies, cardoon and crambe, aquilegias and pinks and self sown foxgloves.

The garden is full of alchemilla and catmint, poppies self seed and this year we had our first flowers on the wisteria.

And now, having done this tour I realise that some of the most important aspects of the garden are missing - the view over Morecambe Bay to the Forest of Bowland thirty or more miles away, the sound of spring lambs in the fields around us, the birdlife - not just on the feeders but visits from mallard, buzzard, heron and jays.

This is now long enough.

There is plenty more at http://darbishire.blogspot.co.uk/ where I have been spouting about the garden for a few years.

STAIR RODS, SLUGS AND SNAILS

The gutters cannot cope and a waterfall splashes down outside the kitchen.

It is summer!

Well is it?

Midsummer's day is clearly in the wrong place - yes, it is the summer solstice, but midsummer - never.

Here in the UK summer is June, July and August, autumn is September and October, spring is April and May and winter is November, December, January, February and March! At least it feels like that - and then you have a week with temperatures in the seventies in March and we all freeze in May.

Of course, if the British had no variations in weather we would have little to discuss.

The picture of the garden and house is taken from the far south western corner by the white birches. The stream winds across the foreground, (the rain was so heavy yesterday the stream lifted one of the wooden bridges (really planks) into the air), the wood is to the left and the ponds and boggy areas off to the right.

The broom on the banking below the house has been dramatic. However it does have the habit of scattering its offspring about - not always quite what I want.

So to the slimy chewers.

I have planted out more white Cosmos and each has its own bottomless plastic pot with a band of copper tape.

I have done the same with the last pumpkin but I have never seen such fat snails. Last winter was not hard and cold enough so much mollusc life overwintered.

A jay has just landed on a post outside the study window - British parrots? They are so twitchy and timid - unlike the grey squirrels.

At least with all the rain the rhubarb does not need watering.

The white lilac has gone brown - deadheading in order.

We are seeing many young birds now, bullying their parents - is anything new?

Now I have a Carrion crow on the shed roof.

I hope the swallow and house martin young have managed to ride out the rain as the adult birds find it difficult to feed their young in such conditions.

It is time to venture out and sow another lot of beetroot - I think the pigeons got the last lot. They are great fat birds waddling about under the feeders. No wonder the peregrine takes them for a slap up meal - to eat, I mean, not takes them out to lunch . . . . you know what I mean.

CASHEL HOUSE AND SUCH

Just back from a fantastic wedding at Cashel House Hotel in Connemara and its wonderful gardens where one can wander through the shrubbery and woods to be surprised by unexpected corners such as Mary's Garden.

Arrived home to be dazzled by the oriental poppies growing as I had hoped at the foot of the upper banking.

Set off by a burst of white soapwort and the green of foliage and grass they are a knock-out.

More will be planted - I want the whole bed to be just oriental poppies - I can sort out what to do with the area for the rest of the year later.

The flowerbed was not the only place where there is a blaze of oriental red.

In the long grass of the banking below the toffee trees (cercidiphyllum)(the autumn leaves smell of caramel) is a poppy from before we built the house. The previous owner, T.J., had these and they have survived, now growing as if wild.

We returned to a whirl of house martins - as hoped we are being colonised and, in addition to the nest under the west gable we now have two more under the east gable (and the swallow above the front (back) door). (The front door is at the back of the house.)

To more edible things - here you can see broad beans sown in succession being protected by twine and alkathene piping - gaudy but seems to work.

The plastic tubs, bottoms knocked out, have carrots in them. I do this to avoid carrot fly which zooms around at zero feet much like incoming cruise missiles. With the carrots being up in the air they whizz past in search of another target. (I hope!)

Just mowed lawns and hit a small stone with blades - so, out with fork and dig it up then fill hole - stone was huge 2ft x 1ft x 1ft or a lot in metres.

There is a feeling of impending rain in the air so I am glad to have done the grass cutting - anyway the mower has to go off for a service now.

Done lawn, had shower, have mugga tea.

Next wedding end July - C, son and P. Need to lose weight ++ so exercise ++++ and food ---- for 6 weeks.

On the other hand I may just wear a different suit?

GARDENING DESIRES

This is one of the paths in our small piece of woodland.

So, I asked myself, (if one talks to trees I suppose it is ok to talk to myself), if you could work magic in the garden what would you chose.

Several thoughts spring to mind - manure that transports itself, weeds that commit suicide all in the greater cause, birds that do not fly into windows, squirrels that are red - I could tolerate them if they were not so grey, rabbits that ate only long grass, slugs and snails that emigrate every morning to next door (next door is a field), paving that did not get slippery and need power washing AND a machine that strimmed by itself.

Ah! I can only dream.

This is a marigold, one of the ones that overwintered and now are flowering profusely.

It is redolent with Fibonacci numbers as its petals spiral out from the centre, it is just that it is not easy to see here.

R loves orange, not oranges but the colour. So I search for orange geums and wallflowers and oriental poppies and so on.

Marigolds are right up her street but she likes these big ones not the small tagetes.

No matter what colour there is in the garden, and most of it is green, greys and more importantly whites are essential.

I like red so the oriental poppy Goliath does well as does Geum Mrs Bradshaw seen here.

Something has munched the Cosmos Annabelle seedlings - rabbits I think - and I saw them escaping up into the brambles by the far wall - investigation needed.

As per Monty Don on Gardeners' World, the asparagus is very poor and now needs feeding and leaving alone - only 3 meals from the whole bed.

Roses are out and in a vase in the hall with a large sprig of Kolkwitzia, the beauty bush. Strangely, its flowers look much better in an arrangement than on the bush.

The other morning I looked out of the living room window to see, sitting on the willow tunnel, a tawny owl. We hear them at night, hooting and squeawking. (The sound is nether an squeak nor a squawk).

It is still chilly, wooly combinations and flat hat (I do live up north) on, swimming cozy well shut away in a drawer.

IT'S NOT DURKIN BUT IT IS DATE SLICE

The heat has gone but it is still pleasantly warm.

I have just spent an hour or so sitting in the garden listening to the birds singing and watching the swallows and house martins - yes, both are nesting under the eaves.

A cup of tea, a piece of date slice (recipe at the end)(not mine), a Kakuro completed, a few pages out of Prehistoric Cumbria by David Barrowclough (he gets the middle name of my Great Great Uncle, the one who excavated Ehenside Tarn, wrong - should have been Dukinfield not Durkin), and finally Our Kind of Traitor by John Le Carre.

The name Le Carre reminds me of the story of one of our children - I will let them be anonymous - who when asked to name a disciple of Jesus said Judas the Carrot!

To the garden, mowing, STRIMMING!!!!!, yes, I have taken it out after 18 months and it started first time, done around shrubs on banking and the sides of the stream. A big toad and a small frog escaped my threat.

The asparagus struggles on - a disappointing year - but the rhubarb has recovered with a good feed and loads of water. We are getting desperate for rain or it will be watering, watering, watering. Three cheers for a bore-hole.

Aquilegia are everywhere - wonderful chaos.

The Oriental poppies the previous owner, TJ, had have come out in the long grass on the top banking. I rather like the shock of colour in the long grass.

The streams from the field (drains) have dried up but the one from under next doors wall and the drainage from the septic tank overflow have kept the pond, just, topped up (ish).

The wood is full of red campion and pignut but the bluebells are over.

It must be time for the recipe -

Date slice -

Ingredients - 12 oz dates chopped and stoned

6 tbsp water

grated rind 1/2 lemon

8oz wholemeal flour

4 oz porridge oats

dark brown sugar 3 oz

butter melted 5oz

Heat dates, lemon rind and water gently till dates soft.

Mix rest of stuff and press half into bottom of shallow square cake tin.

Spread date goo n the top and then the rest of the stuff on top of that. Press down.

About 20 min in 200C - Aga, bottom top oven with cold shelf in.

Allow to cool, cut into squares and eat!

OWLS, HERONS AND HEAT

I should explain - we took friends to Muncaster Castle Gardens yesterday to see the azaleas and rhododendrons, the owls fly and the herons being fed and had a wonderful time.

It made me realise what a contrast the Lake District can offer as we had had a picnic by Wast Water earlier.

Today I have put in some calendulas and it is hot - as it was yesterday - 25.5C.

Of course last year's marigolds are still flowering!

This is an honesty given to us by S and the colour is fairly accurate - perhaps a bit pink. I have the white but this is intense, not like the usual rather pale version.

I rather like having unusual colour varieties of plants - still looking for a true blue rose. Our friends brought us a super floribunda called Supertrooper which I have now planted near the other roses.

There was always a problem with the rose bed in that it was bordered by a large area of paving but the difficulty was resolved when we were given some forgetmenots

by another friend of R. They are wonderful at the moment but they do go a bit scraggy later in the year and have to be pulled up. Then there is an interval whilst we await the growth of self sown seedlings. One snag is that the forgetmenots sow themselves in the other beds, in the wood, everywhere.

One of the weeding jobs is pull up errant plants.

The last picture is of a flower

arrangement R has done from the garden, sitting on the woodburner which I hope is redundant for the summer.

The grass on the banking and in the wood is knee high but I cannot cut (or strim - hooray!) it because of the daffodils still in leaf - they need to build up their bulbs for next year.

Our friends have just prized themselves away from the view from the house over Morecambe Bay and headed home. He is a magician but not all magic is sleight of hand?

The house martins are building, no they are not, yes they are, no they are not but the swallows, which were not, possible are, I think?

If you are now confused then you seem to share this with the birds. Perhaps this is where the phrase - away with the birds - comes from?

FLOWERS AND BLACKBIRDS

We have our first rose and first oriental poppy.

Sudden rise in temperature means all is go at last

- for the weeds too.

Spent two days weeding, ripping up the clawed roots of creeping buttercup, pulling out the thousands of broad-leaved willowherbs and cursing at the newest pest - we have vetch!

Common vetch has started to appear in dense clumps of campanula and saxifrage and it is a terror - compatible with horsetails and bindweed. I cannot be bothered to dig the whole bed up so pull and pester the pest and hope it will give up.

Our back windows are netted and criss-crossed with trellis and this seems to have stopped the mad blackbird that was attacking its reflection. Now it sings gloriously from the ash tree above the shed. One blackbird has built a nest in the bonfire! So we have abandoned that one and started anew.

Then R was debrambling by the wood and uncovered another nest. We can only hope that the bird will go back to sitting on the eggs but . .

Many flowers self seed in the garden.

Some I am happy to let do their own thing such as Aquilegias - nothing fancy, just good old Granny's Bonnets, pinks and blues mainly. R likes the blues best though I think they are almost violet.

The asparagus is just starting to recover from the cold and I have had to net the turnip seedlings to keep off the pigeons. Goosegogs are doing fine and we have blossom and leaves on the Bramley - I had given up hope.

Sadly the swallows have not returned to nest on the house but we are being investigated by House Martins as last year - fingers crossed.

Have just Skyped family in Herefordshire - now exhausted so need a cuppa or a pinta (not milk).

TIME AND FROST

The poor old Davidia (hankie tree ) has had its leaves crisped by

a surprise frost.

This also means the sweet peas I am growing for my son's wedding and the asparagus are not progressing. This must have happened whilst we were away enjoying the beauty of Arisaig. We went to a garden near Port Appin called Druimneil House which is recovering from, what the owner described as, three disastrous winter storms with much damage. The house is in a lovely position and the garden interesting. The storm also brought down some old pines by castle Tioram changing the landscape dramatically.

We visited Drummond Castle near Lough Earn on the way up - an amazing example of control freakiness with parterre and topiary all laid out with mathematical precision.

Nevertheless worth visiting.

In Arisaig the oaks were just coming into leaf and astonishingly yellow, bluebells and primroses carpeted the woods and banks - as here with this view over to Rum and Eigg.

Earlier in the year we had been top Herefordshire and found this flowering cherry

- could have dug it up and taken it home.

The garden at home is filled with birdsong (and bunnies) (and Squirrels) (and woodmice) and so on.

R and I discussed what we will do when I can no longer manage the garden in its present size and came to the conclusion that we could separate off a lot of it with a fence and then just mow paths through it. In late August we could pay some one to strim and clear it - and, perhaps again in early spring?

Must go, sister and b-in-l here having breakfast and the wild birds need feeding.

SWEET PEAS EVERYWHERE

Swallows are here but not the rain. They keep promising it and then three spots and that is all - so watering going on. It has been a very dry April/early May.

The pond is low with a few surviving tadpoles clinging on. Down there the first candelabra primulas are out - white with a yellow eye and deep red. The yellow and orange ones come later.

The Kingcups/marsh marigiolds

are splendid but this has nothing to do with the title.

I have been putting out handfuls of sweet peas all tied in and surrounded by netting to keep the bunnies at bay - two fat ones who come in and out of the garden by the oak tree in the hedge. I suggested to R that I made a wire loop trap but she pointed out that I would botch the job, and that I wouldn't kill them anyway as I do not like killing things.

I am rather fond of the rabbits - perhaps I should personalise the relationship by giving them names - something from the past - ?Uncle Bun and Aunt Bill?

Herbs have been put in near the coldframe - thyme, marjoram and lemon balm. There is also a rosemary bush there.

Tulips have moved on to later flowering ones - a black one given to me some years ago by Puck which keeps going on and on and these red ones by the Wendy House which are almost overpowering.

Ate a little rhubarb yesterday so my tongue is not the only thing I am running away with now! Amazing how a little radiotherapy can change ones habits! This makes me remember to tell you that I have planted some buddleia cuttings around the septic tank to try and hide it.

Also had a smidgeon of asparagus but had to supplement with some shop bought stuff. It has not yet really got going.

Now I have to go up into the wood and do a rain dance - well actually the weather forecast is poor for the coming week - hooray! for the garden, boo! for those going on holiday.

WHERE HAVE ALL THE SWALLOWS GONE, LONG TIME . . .

Where are the swallows?

Now May and only seen one passing over.

However we have had a cuckoo in the garden for the first time.

Some shrubs are flowering and flowering - the Magnolia stellata and the flowering currant have been at it for weeks. I think the cold weather may be the reason.

And the rhubarb is thriving - I have frozen 6 lbs already - and we are eating asparagus.

R bought an ice cream maker at Lakeland in Windermere so we have had our first sally into such with a mixed fruit sorbet - very rich.

Of course Windermere is the name of the lake (not Windermere Lake - tautology) and the town called Windermere is actually Applethwaite and the bit by the lake Bowness. I think the name changed when they opened the station in Applethwaite and called it Windermere Station.

This has nothing to do with the garden so onward.

During the few showers I have potted on the Begonia rex and 4 amaryllis which live in the house.

Talking of weather we are cool and dry!

Whereas the south now is flooded our stream is almost dry.

We had a shower yesterday but the sun is now out.

Also yesterday I carefully removed new growth below desired height from trees in the garden, especially the willows and have pruned the twisted willow and the weeping willow which has never wept - I live in hope.

More veg in - have sown turnips (not the big things we call swedes up here but the small white turnips) and french beans. It may be too early but I might get away with it. The sweet peas are also in after hardening off. Tied in loose raspberry canes and mucked them up - I mean mulched them with muck.

The bonfire grows with old wood from the bramble patch as we clear it (well, R does).

The cherries are now looking

more like trees - as with the Prunus shirotae here - and one day will be spectacular.

Where the blue seat is in this picture in front of the cold frame I have made a small bed and planted it with 3 choisya ternata sundance given to me by A. my son-in-law.

More weeding, I hear the cry.

At least the cool weather has slowed grass growth which reminds me I need more petrol for the mowers.

In the autumn I rashly splashed out a few pennines in the market and bought some wallflowers - worth every penny and the scent. . . !

I am short of Thyme as we seem to use a lot - must get another plant or two.

PROOF IS IN THE JAMJAR

So here is the proof - did make marmalade - albeit with frozen oranges - but it worked.

So the day I made Marmalade Bert Weedon died - did I use his tutor - well actually, no, I was too lazy and just mucked about with chords (which is all I can do now). Only good for jam sessions - Ha!

Did 4 lbs raspberry jam with old fruit today - yum!

Saw first swallow yesterday

and we had siskins on the birdfeeders, sir to the left, m' lady to the right.

Still no nuthatches but one can always hope.

In the garden a banking has been cleared by covering it for three years with black porous plastic sheeting - actually this was part of the great pumpkin and squash, oh! and marrow plan but this year I have scattered wildflower seed.

And there are bees in the garden - honey bees. Hardly saw a single one last year.

So to the celandines -

I no longer dig them up - have conceded defeat and now say how lovely they are. Anyway they will have disappeared by summer.

I have planted some parsley and three rows of leeks, the latter in their trenches, in the protected vegbeds.

There is this thought that runs through my head - Shall I mow? Shall I not mow?

I pondered so long the heavens opened and my dilemma was resolved.

One great success has been the ranunculi - never did well before so I emptied an old sink in the autumn and stuffed it with compost. R then put in the ranunculi and they are doing so well.

Is it rununculi or ranunculusses or, if neuter Latin, ranuncula?

Does it really matter?

Even to the ranuncs?