Short back and sides.

Our hover mower really isn't up to the task of cutting the grass/ It merely bends the tips and then flattens them which is no use to man or beast.I can spend half an hour trying to mow the lawn only to collect about two handfuls of grass trimmings.Then of course the grass springs up again and looks no different for my thirty minutes' work. In desperation today I got out the edger and started cutting the grass with that until Luke, who was lazing on a blanket on the ground and trying to read his novel, got sprayed in the eye by grass cuttings. With that, he hopped up, went indoors to research lawn mowers online and came back within ten minutes telling me that Bosch produced one that had full marks. He'd even found out how many were available in our local shop and before the hour was out had mown the back lawn.
It has transformed our garden and the whole place looks so much better.Good call, Luke!

Losing the plot.

Actually, it's more about gaining a plot as I've cut away two sides of grass to extend the vegetable plot. Poor Luke has worked up in his office the entire day so to keep myself busy I have been out in the garden. I've used the grass that I dug up to cover two bare patches between the conifers. There are so many weeds and patchy bits of straggly grass around the place that need tackling but everything takes time, doesn't it? We're getting through it all though - bit by bit.

I've planted up another lot of peas and given everything a darn good watering (I aim to water things at least twice as long as I think they need) but Sweetie found three dried peas in the ground which hadn't gone back into the packet!

Halfway through the day the heavens cracked and fat, warm drops of rain meant I had to move the radio, the books (which I never get to read but still take out with me just in case) and unhook the hammock. No sooner had the rain started than it stopped again and from then on the temperature seemed to rise a degree an hour.
At six thirty we sat outside with a cup of tea each whilst the chickens pecked around our chairs. A long chat to Jack before dinner and then this quick post and the day is done. A warm bath is my next port of call.

Spade work.

Luke worked hard on expanding the vegetable patch which he then planted up with potatoes. The first thing he plants when using new ground as the  plant helps to break up the soil.
I want to busy around it and get a design to the veg patch which probably drives Luke wild when it's purely perfunctory for him.
My idea is to divide it into four so each bed is small enough to tend without having to tread on the rest of it. I want to divide it diagonally so there are four triangles with a centre point (maybe a sun dial or possibly just a large pot) and, to keep out the chicks a box edge about a foot high. Delusions of grandeur  would have seen me planting dwarf espalier apples but these will only be pecked at by the chicks and I'm not convinced that  growing fruit so low to the ground is a good thing for us to do, chickens, slugs and wellington books may take their toll as well as the splash back from the ground being hosed over. They look lovely but aren't yet for me.

(I've also added some photos to the tree post from last weekend).

Bathtime before bedtime

These photos show the tulips, freshly watered and tucking themselves up tightly, ready for the night.

Good Friday feeling.

Oh how blissful - a long weekend and fabulous warm Spring days, full of light from 6.00am till sunset. The chickens are loving being out all day although the downside of it is that you cannot make any noise without them thinking there's a chance of easy food and then you have a charge of waddling feathered shapes and a guilt the size of a Mother's love until they are thrown a handful of seed to placate them thereby fulfilling their belief that they'll get fed.

I've brought the laptop outside to type this whilst enjoying the birdsong and the warmth of an early morning sun and as I look out I can see the lazy chickens already sated after bread, seeds and layers pellets. Luke and I have walked around the garden and I've talked him through the things I did yesterday (planting up the new thymes, lavender and rosemary, digging over the patch of next door's garden which blends into ours so I can get rid of some of the weeds and most significantly for me, digging up the last bit of bamboo which had escaped our first attempt of eradicating it last year)

I really need to enlarge the herb garden but that's a common fault of mine; making a space and then realising I can't get anything else in it.

Do you remember when I first made the herb garden about seven months ago? I'd designed it to scroll around in front of the greenhouse but I'd already got the corner border planted so I was limited for space. I did a sort of S shape in box and put my standard bay in the larger circle as a sort of focal point and then put in a rosemary at the other end. Well, the harsh and prolonged winter we had put paid to that idea when it killed off the bay which I have dug up, cut right back and re-potted and is now throwing up new shoots. The rosemary too was growing very unevenly (I'm rubbish at pruning rosemary and lavenders – I don't know why I haven't got the idea yet after so many years but I don't have success with pruning either of these whereas my roses (which often scare people about how and when to prune) seem to be thriving. Still, there's time for me to kill those off so I shouldn’t' be so bold with my claims.

If you needed a lesson on the birds and the bees you could do no better than be sitting in this garden right now. I'm surrounded by fat bumble bees, hover flies,.wasps, honey bees, a variety of birds dancing in the sky and a chorus of tweets and chirps from every direction.

There must be plenty of food for the birds right now because the tits have not been feasting on the peanuts as they have been doing for months. Where until recently they were emptying the two feeders on a daily basis we are now only having to top them up once a week.

The majestic oak is now resplendent in a new emerald-bright coat of green leaves and obscures the birds resting in it from sight.

It's been so hot that Luke's tomato seeds have sprung up and been frazzled in their trays so he'll need to start again. I'll be sewing my second row of Tommy peas today, almost two weeks after the first ones were planted so we can enjoy them fresh for a longer season. I'll do the same again in two more week's time which will extend my joy when plucking peas straight from the pod and popping them into my mouth to release that sweetness that comes from their absolute freshness.

We're going to have a quick drive around the lanes in a while so I can show Luke how glorious the fields of yellow rape look against the blue of the sky and then I may just hop into the hammock to catch up on my latest book group read, Birdsong.

Timber!

I've finally got the ladder from Jack, next door which meant I had no excuse not to shunt up it and get those waywardly branches down from the large Acer in the border. With an audience (Jack's neighbour also peered over to watch whilst she had a running commentary from Jack) I sawed off the few branches stopping me from being able to use the bow saw for the main trunk. It was too late really to be pruning it as the new growth was already under way but if not now I'd have to wait till it was dormant again and I don't want it to grow any larger. So, I came down the ladder to check the shape and up zipped Luke to take over as the main trunk was hard work. He did all the hard work before I took over and cut through the last bit and with a shout of "Thare she blows!" the top seven foot fell to the ground (we checked there were no chickens roaming under that space before letting it fall)

 Above: The tree, unaware that I am about to massacre it!

Standing back to see the overall shape as once up there I couldn't judge which ones needed to be pruned

Back up the tree for more cutting. Purists will be horrified at my hacking away but whilst I don't want things manicured to within and inch of their lives I also don't want this tree dominating the garden.

Above: all that's left of the cut branches - by winter-time they may be ready for kindling.

Embroidery in nature.

The water on this lady's mantle softens it with a little lace edge and a big blob of dew in the centre.

This is my euphorbia which I thought had thought I'd lost in the hard winter.

Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink.

After the garden had a good watering, it was time for a cup of tea.
You can see the neighbour's garden in the background. Without a wall between us the battle is on to keep the dandelions out. Still, as a bank of yellow it's quite pretty isn't it and our neighbours are lovely so it's we don't mind  very much. .

The black shirt trick.

This is how we got these photos.

Once I put Luke's black shirt behing the tulip Luke takes the photo. We took these at midday with full sun. Such diverse shapes and colours.

Pretty in pink.

Here are a few of the performers in the garden.