Sunday 24 March 2013

Drifts

We've had a pleasant weekend in Ludlow, although we were a bit house-bound due to the snow. Nonetheless, we got a few things done, and managed to make it to the market (nine new hellebores (H. niger), as I can't resist the stalls).

We've now struggled home: roads are fine until you come off the motorway, and then they deteriorate rapidly. The car's parked in the village, and we've walked the last two miles home: the lane has enormous drifts, up to six feet deep, and twenty long, and there are bigger ones on the uncleared roads around us. Fortunately, Chris has used his tractor to break a path through the lane, which makes it passable on foot, although I wouldn't try the car.

Commutes this week are going to be a little tiresome. Spring can't break out soon enough!

Sunday 17 March 2013

Tidying

The weather this weekend has been surprisingly good. We were expecting rain, and clouds, and cold temperatures. It has been cold (but not freezing); it has rained (but only overnight); and the cloud has been broken by patches of glorious spring sun.

Yesterday, we planted out the replacement willows to either side of the septic tank. The original plants (from last summer) didn't all survive: mainly attention from deer, we let the bed get rather grassy, which almost certainly weakened them. There are now about eight willows (red, gold, osier) down each side; the willows to eventually form the arches into and out of the pond garden are also planted. We realised we'd miscounted, so we needed to steal a few willows from the stand on the hillside, but that made space to plant the three sweet chestnuts that didn't fit, previously, in that space.

To start today, we sawed, split, and stacked a load of hardwood (mostly laburnum, with some birch), and then continued doing some tidying and clearing that began yesterday. We pulled up a load of grass from around the spring bulbs on the back bank, as well as around the daffodils in the copse.  The berberis outside the workshop patio has been getting in my way, so I trimmed that, and the neighbouring holly, back. We've liberated the Japanese quince from nettle, grass, and bramble grasps, and cut down brambles from along the lower bank. Hard, prickly work, and the compost bills are massively over-filled, now, but the garden's looking a lot tidier.

Lastly; another sowing of beetroot, in a pot, as the previous pots haven't germinated all that well. We're also still waiting for the celeriac seed to come up (sown 3rd March, so two weeks ago): if they don't show soon, we may need to order new seed. That said, I think they're expected to take up to 21 days, so all is not yet lost.

Sunday 10 March 2013

Seeds

It being March, we always have seeds to sow. Today was a number of vegetables, as well as some ornamental plants, including some that came via the RHS seed collection service. These—hellebores, cyclamen, and camassia—need some work before they germinate. The cyclamen and camassia are in seed compost, in trays in the fridge, to (try to) break their dormancy. They'll then come in and sit on a windowsill to get going. The hellebores are outside, under a pane of glass, to be exposed to the elements for a while. They take up to eighteen months to germinate, so it's a real waiting game. Hellebores are an investment of optimism and time: after the eighteen months (potentially) to germinate, it'll still be three or four years before they flower, and we can see whether they're pretty and garden worthy.

Less demanding are cineraria, petunias, and the vegetables: more beetroot ('Globe'), leeks ('Porbello', to go with the already germinated 'Prizetaker'), and spinach (more 'Lazio'). The broad beans we sowed last week have started to come up, and all but one tomato is germinated. The chillis and sweet peppers aren't doing as well, but they can take a couple of weeks, so they're definitely still in progress.

Today wasn't a day for being outside (sleet, snow, rain), but we had a productive day yesterday, planting seven of the sweet chestnuts, and fourteen willows (scarlet, golden, and osier). The rest of the willows we bought (ten of each of those) are going around the garden, to fill in the living willow screen next to the septic tank, and form the willow arches around the pond. Passing deer inflicted quite a lot of damage on these last winter, so there are gaps. Fortunately, this year hasn't seen as much deer damage, possibly because we think they came into the garden where the wood shelter is now, which blocks their access.

The clearing which the chestnuts and willow are screening does, however, definitely have deer wandering through. There are at least three clear animal tracks, and a damaged section of dry stone wall where they obviously cross. To stop them killing the saplings, the trees are inside an 8x1.5m chicken wire enclosure, which will hopefully make them either inaccessible, or sufficiently unattractive. The last three sweet chestnuts are in pots, and will probably now be planted out in the autumn.

Sunday 3 March 2013

Boundaries

Yesterday, along with Peter and Sara, we put in the posts that mark the boundary where we split the hillside when we purchased it from Bob. There are about a dozen of them, all 2.5" posts (5'6" long), driven into the ground along the border. Five in the lower section, and then going up the hill, between the trees, to the stone wall at the top. It went surprisingly well, with Liz holding a ranging post at the 'corner' half way up (the post giving the height to see over the trees), and me at the top sighting down, while Peter and Sara positioned the posts coming up.

We have a slightly larger patch of blackthorn that we realised, having now clambered through it: almost certainly more than we need, so we may cut it back to a thinner, more hedge-like extent, and create space for another couple of fruit trees. Putting in the markers only took us until lunch, so we managed to get some tidying and clearing done, too: some renovation pruning on what we believe to be an unproductive few apples at the bottom of the tree line (if they show no sign of fruiting this year, they'll probably come out), clearing blackthorn and brambles around their bases, and finally clearing the driveway of the rubbish that's been accumulating (mostly firewood and abandoned cement blocks and stones: fairly unattractive). While Liz did some of that, I climbed onto the garage roof, and have repositioned and secured the roof stones that have slipped out of position. The pointing at the ridgeline is in a sorry state, and I'll have to spend a day on that over the summer: not my idea of a fun job, but there you go. The coping stones are all in place, but the pointing between them and the top run of slates is weak, broken, and patchy.

Having got the deciduous trees in two weeks ago, we've now also planted the Scot's Pines, in the spaces we'd marked out. With the holes already dug, planting the 24 trees was a day's work (just!), with most of the time spent cutting the turves from the holes up to be able to refill. The last pine (we bought 25) was intended for the hillside, but the lowest hole is impossible to drain. It lies so low, we'll have to plant a willow there, which won't mind the waterlogged soil. That pine will go somewhere else, but there wasn't a hole dug for it, nor time to make one.

In the fading light (aided by the light in the storm porch), we potted up three peonies that arrived ('Sarah Bernhardt', 'Karl Rosenfeld', and 'Shirley Temple'), and sowed a tray of celeriac; half a tray of kale; half a tray of sprouts; and four modules each of tomatoes, sweet peppers and chilli peppers. The leeks, sprouts and beetroot we sowed last week (but I forgot to mention) have started to germinate: not a high percentage of beetroot, though, so we'll need to sow more.