April Shower

 

We had a light sprinkling of rain last night .

Enough to make the grass grow , but not enough to refresh my desperately thirsty plants around the garden .  

Potatoes

                            I planted out some potatoes yesterday afternoon .

 

I wasn't going to bother with potatoes this year , but since a local store were giving them away and I was lucky enough to get my hands on the last bag , I thought why not ?

 

These are main crop - Desire   - just one or two sprouts a little too long , the rest are already perfectly sprouted  and ready to plant out .

 

As I was weeding before planting the potatoes out , I discovered some potatoes that had been left from last year . Pink Fir Apples and another early variety . I usually only grow "early" varieties . So very pleased ! 

  We badly need some rain now !

Time to .......

                                         Camellia " Waterlily" ( my favourite )
 Time to feed and prune the Camellias as the flowers are beginning to go over . I need to do this now to encourage more growth lower down , and because if I forget and do it any later then we will not get flowers next year . I don't do this every year , but these young bushes just need a little gentle restructuring .....not topiary .

 Time to give the kitchen window basket a make-over  . I save and over-winter all my Pelargoniums up in the greenhouse , but we always buy a few more too .

                                        My little heart stone collection .

                      As the Camellias fade away , my Azalea begins to bloom .

The hedgerows are looking their prettiest now with Primroses , Violets and Bluebells . Time to enjoy !

Make a note in my little book - to buy more of these to go into my Cornish hedge at the front of the cottage . 

Time to be surprised by this very early Arum Lily .....

........ and the teeny tiny Wild Strawberry flowers so sweet .

The weather is very cold at night but slowly warming up  . The birds , bees and butterflies are out and about  , the dawn chorus loud and joyful .

                                 Take time to enjoy and wonder at it all !

Ivy

Whoever would have thought that there could be so much Ivy in this one small corner of the garden !

                           My finger joints are aching from pulling it all out .

                                              Two wheelbarrow loads !

Easter Sunday -working in the vegetable garden

 

Happy Easter to you all ! What a lovely weekend we,ve had , with blue sky and warm sunshine .

I was working in the garden with a short sleeved cotton blouse and my straw hat , it was beautiful .

I just had to sort out this vegetable bed . The only thing in there to be saved was the Daubenton's Perennial  Kale , the rest of it was weeds ,weeds and more weeds .

I decided to cut down the Tetrapanax papyrifer rex . What was I thinking to have planted it there  ?   

I had to use a saw to cut it down and I am amazed at how hard it's trunk was , absolutely solid and very heavy wood ! Goodness me ! Sawing was very hard work and the blade kept getting stuck , twenty minutes later it crashed to the ground , I couldn't lift it and had to find a big , strong man to carry it to the compost heap , yes, really heavy !

 I'll leave it for now , but will need to try and get the rest of it and it's root out or I think it might go crazy , putting up shoots and become an even bigger monster than before . 

I did find three nice shoots with roots , which I have potted up and I will find a much better place for them to grow . It is a lovely plant /tree  , but just not in the vegetable garden !

After that I pulled weeds for ages until my arms ached . Three wheel barrows full !

Then raked over a nice thick mulch of well rotted manure .

                                                        Elevenses !

The Robin and the Blackbird had a good feast too and then I covered one end with a black plastic sheet and lay the wheelbarrow down over the other , really because it was very dry and with the gales forecast , I didn't want it all blowing away .It will also help to keep the ground warm .

 I am waiting for some chicken wire and posts to secure it all around this bed and then ,after this week's cold weather and the temperature rises again , I can begin planting things out .

Mean while in the shed , I begin pricking out and potting up my lettuce seedlings .

                                                  All potted up !

                                 Lettuce " Freckles " has freckles already ! 

                            That's all for now , a more restful day tomorrow .