Time

Two reasonable days of weather have seen the gardens come on in leaps and bounds. It has been far that perfect mind you, there were a few rain showers to dodge, although the sun did manage to break through the clouds to warm the bones. It even managed to tempt a few bees out of their winter nap who seemed to take great pleasure in siphoning the nectar from the helebores which are in full bloom.

I finished off the last of the tidying and pruning at the front of the house, being quite ruthless with a few of the shrubs, taking them right down to the ground, and others, removing a proportion of the older wood to encourage new growth from the bottom.

I also managed to finish the pruning of the roses in the rose beds, I dug lightly over to help with aeration, and tomorrow I will give the soil a good covering of well-rotted horse manure to help them on their way.

It seems hard to believe we are already at the end of February. Christmas seems so far away now, and Spring is as good as here.

In the gardening calendar we are coming up the the busiest period. More pruning to come, including the hydrangeas.

More seed sowing to come and then of course the mowing will start. 5 acres of grass takes a lot of time out of the week so it is important to make sure I am as ahead of myself as possible at this time of year.

Busy…busy….busy!!!

Hard Work

What a great working day! I actually had some help today after mentioning it at the Estate meeting. The farm manager released Rob from his farming duties and we managed to blitz the top pond.

We cut down some very overgrown buddleia and elderberry to the ground, opening up the vista of the pond and allowing more air and light around it. We cleared loads of bramble which had managed to weave its way to the tops of the trees. I love renovating and clearance work, although hard. To be able to finally see the wood for the trees so to speak, is such a pleasure.

I know come the warmer weather all the plants will send out healthy new shoots, and the buddleia especially will produce its beautiful flowers that the butterflies and other insects will relish in, sucking up the rich nectar, and of course I will have a feast for the eyes every time I walk to and from work.

We cleared the area on the left over the gate.