Well Saturday was a productive day in the garden. We managed to make the most of the weather and it's just as well as Sunday while still warm was wet here. It was great though to spend a good few hours in the garden, for the first time this year.
We picked up where we'd left off on adding edging to our circles. That wasn't quite so productive though, we hit a complicated section - for complicated read root-ridden - and it took a fair bit of hacksaw wizardry by MOH to get it to sit properly. And a fair bit of time was needed using the tree saw to carve some of the roots into shape, and even then for some we needed to resort to a chisel.
Definitely resourceful, but the tricky piece is in. Phew.
The bad news is we expect the next three or four pieces to be equally as tricky, but I'm hoping with the tools (quite literally) at our disposal we'll make quicker progress, spurred on by an easy stretch near the patio. We've a deadline of mid-June to meet now, so need to get our skates on.
It seems though that everywhere in the garden the weeds had grown. A lot. While MOH was faffing with his hacksaw I filled four trugs with weeds and various sticks that had blown down, and even found time to squeeze in some of my own faffing - taking some pictures.
My hanging basket of succulents hadn't fared well over the winter, unbelievably it had dried out, and so I needed to intervene. I managed to rescue those that were just about clinging onto life and plant them alongside my succulent babies in a more traditional trough.
It's only a small plastic trough, but if they grow and multiply as succulents do then I think it'll look quite pretty. It's currently in the greenhouse, not because it needs to be, but for its own protection. I've a feeling the local squirrel population is likely to dig these up before they get settled if I leave it outside. They've been helping themselves to my tulips in the pots on the patio, which I'm none too happy about.
And those poor tulips, their start in life wasn't so good anyway, let alone with any squirrel interference.
Soon though I distracted by the lime green flowers of the euphorbias, which at this time of year are dazzling bright and dotted around the garden. They're not a favourite of MOH's and annoy him just by being there and right now for being more visible than normal. I like them though, because of the colour they bring, so they're staying. And he knows this.
They're joined under one of our large plane trees by the pink flowering hostas, which so far don't seem that nibbled. There is quite a bit of colour in our garden at the moment which is good - even the lime green counts as colour, you'll know that MOH has a long standing wish for there to be more colour in our garden of large trees and bushes. So when he walked onto the patio and said our garden looked quite colourful, I felt like it was almost mission accomplished.
I'd left the sedum heads over winter, partly because I'm a bit of a lazy gardener and mostly for the birds. But they're done now and needed clearing away. When they're like this it's easy to twist them away from the base where new plants are already growing, and looking a bit like brussels sprouts. I pulled a couple of new plants up as I went about this task a little too enthusiastically it seems, so found a pot and stuck them, hoping for the best.
I'm sure they'll come through and I'll have another clump to plant in the garden some time soon. I think using the same plant in several spots throughout the garden is a good policy to have, it brings continuation and it's even better if you've got the extra clumps for free from existing plants.
Just in front of the greenhouse the currant berry was basking in the sun and looked to be enjoying it as much as we were. In the sun it really was quite warm, the temperature in the greenhouse was nineteen degrees, but it's already been as high as twenty eight.
The hellebores are continuing to flower, but their colour has deepened and more are setting seed. I've already spotted a few tiny plants growing so I'm hopeful that there'll be more plants for free here, now I just need to find a way to stop MOH stepping on them or pulling them out as weeds.
The yellow primulas continue to flower, and are now joined by this pretty white version among one of the many aquilegias already growing. For now I'll leave all the aquilegias, or granny's bonnet, but as they finish flowering I'll pull them up as they are prolific self-seeders, and well, even for me there's only so many you can have.
My yellow daffodils have been joined by the more delicate coloured almost cream and pale yellow daffodils, and there's many of their cheery heads dotted around the garden. These two growing through the pastel phormium looked both pretty and interested in the work that MOH was doing. He was working alongside them and in front of the yucca, who was clearly less impressed with being interfered with and so got its own back by stabbing MOH's forehead several times, drawing blood.
Gardening's not for the faint-hearted, not where the yucca's concerned anyway. I'm just hoping for all its stubbornness that this year it'll flower again, I think we're due some payback for the pain it dishes out.
With the single - but tricky - piece of edging in place, and the rugby close to starting a decision needed to be made - carry on, give the grass its first cut, or give up completely. It was too nice to be inside, so the TV was paused and out came the lawnmower. The grass is MOH's pride and joy and I knew that however pretty these iris-like flowers are, they wouldn't stand a chance of being saved once grass cutting season arrived. I'll never be one to have a naturalised lawn, well not this lawn anyway.
So it's just as well I got a picture hey? But it was oh so nice to get out into the garden, I'd planned to do more on Sunday, but the weather said not. Maybe that's a good thing and was nature's way of easing me back in gently, who knows?
