Blinking work

Being a full time worker throughout the summer months is teeth-nashingly frustrating. When there are these long sunny days and I'm sat at a computer or sorting out health and safety paperwork I don't even have time to think how much joy I could be having with a fork in my hand and dirt in between my toes. Now I get home exhausted and can only water the plants, let the hens out for a roam and a stroll around to see what is different in the garden.
The little visitor we had entertained at the weekend was a gorgeous frog. We only knew about it because the cat from next door alerted us to it. The first I knew about it was Luke shouting, "The cat is having a poo!" and I went over to shoo her off my herb patch. Yuck, there was this blob of green and brown in the middle of the ground and I was just about to head indoors to grab a bag to scoop it up when it hopped into the sage! I rushed indoors to get the camera to capture the little chap when it hopped into the box and disappeared from view.
Yesterday Buck Bucky discovered how tasty beetles were and today there was a tiny pinkie (a newborn mouse) on the lawn. I don't know how it got there but Buck Bucky found it and was delighted to wolf it down. Disgusting! Seeing as how they had enjoyed cooked rice for breakfast she's certainly got a varied diet right now.

Roses, raspberries and ramblings.

What I didn't tell you was that in order to plant the strawberries I had to move one of the raspberries. In order to reposition the raspberry I had to move a rose. I have not been kind to my roses which is a great pity as the ones I have not moved have rewarded me with masses of buds. The Geoff Hamilton rose has been my most favourite this year. I have decided to move my deep claret rose 'Munstead' as the ground is too poor under the shrubs by the Acer and I want it to continue the gradual deepening colour of the border that starts off with the palest pink rose and as it sweeps around it gets pinker with 'Geoff Hamilton and the Japanese anemone and stargazer lilies before it reaches the long border and changes to deep pink when the purples then come into their own and mix with the pinks one side of the chimney pot before being divided in colour by a cream snapdragon-type plant (I forget it's name) and then begins to move closer to the clashing corner. This part of the long border continues the theme of the purple plants but the pink has been replaced with the startling orange geums before blending into the silver and orange/red plants.

However, back to the rose I had to move. I have no place suitable for it to go. The only area I could put it in does not have good enough soil so I have just potted it up for now till I can find a place in the front garden which I hope to work on from next spring. It's not ideal, the rose would have been happier being left alone but it had to be done. The raspberry didn't want moving either and it's disappointing to have to do the wrong thing but sometimes we have no choice. Limiting it's shock it the kindest thing to do if you have to move it so my trusty hose has earned it's keep today.

One thing leads to another and I needed a place to a couple more plants so the hose was also used as a guide for my edger in order to create more space by cutting into the lawn.

We've worked so hard today and I could tell you more but I've got another load of ironing to do (well, a sunny day just cries out for a washing line full of clean clothes). Soon after that I shall be dozing off whether I want to or not. For now I am watching Gardener's World whilst I press the clothes. Oh joy.

The photos will follow and I'll blog about the visitor to the garden that the cat alerted us to at a later date. 

Fruity times.

Wow, another scorcher and another sweat-busting day. I love it when I can spend a whole day in the garden (once our Sunday tea and cake treat is over). The chickens love it too because they are allowed to roam freely in ours and Jack's garden the entire day. We were rewarded with one single egg (the first for a fortnight) from Shakira who is also moulting. Whilst Luke sprained his wrist carrying a load of marble tiles I ended up with a very achy back after lifting heavy pots. What a couple of crocks.

We did manage to work all day though and very satisfying it was too.

Luke spent most of the day concreting in the upright posts for the fence; it's really starting to take shape now. Okay, so we still only have the posts in but the fourteen holes had to be dug out, no easy task with the huge stones that cripple the spade work and great quantities of sand and cement have had to be mixed. Hopefully the next jobs will be that much easier – lengths of 2 by 3 horizontal struts screwed into the fence posts before featherboard is overlaid to create a great length of fence which we'll then paint.

Today was also the last day we could clear out the allotment plot we have long given up. Our friend, Tim, had kept it on but left it to literally go to seed with his own commitments preventing him from visiting often enough. We found that our raspberries had all been pinched as well as the greenhouse dismantled and moved! What a ruddy cheek! If they'd ask, we'd have happily let them take stuff but I'm not very impressed with it being stripped. We managed to salvage an enormous red currant which seemed like a sensible idea before we realised how huge it was (we'd have been better off buying a young plant) but by then we'd already disturbed it's root system so we carried on. Once we got it home I hard pruned it (such a bad time to move it but we had no choice so I tried to limit the work the plant would have to do by taking away some of it's bulk. Hopefully now it will put it's energy into the remaining branches. It had filled the entire back seat of the car when we brought it home but now it looks quite manageable. I also had to tease away the weeds from the root system as it had mare's tail and other weeds growing through it. I dug a huge hole but had to decent compost or sharp sand to condition the soil but I am pretty sure that most berries don't need great soil to grow well (just look at blackberries that spring up at the side of railway tracks). Of course I watered the hole, planted the redcurrant, watered the ground and kept the hose on it for a good ten minutes. Very early days but so far so good.

We also took just one of Luke's premium blackberry plants to train against the fence once it's built.

I'd planted it up before Luke saw it and told me I was too far away from where the actual fence will be so I dug it up and replanted it about five inches closer to where the fence will go. Sadly though, the ground was sodden by then because I had well watered it in to it's original hole so it was rather boggy and my feet seemed to weigh twice their normal weight with all the compacted mud stuck to my shoes as I walked across the ground. We've decided that along the fence will run our fruit garden. We've already got thirteen raspberry canes which have been stripped of their ruby fruit by the chickens up to the point they can reach and also lots of anaemic berries at the top waiting to ripen. The wild birds may beat us to them but we can net them up if need be. Having seen a small bird caught in netting before now I am loath to use netting but I'll reserve judgement till I see how many raspberries are swiped by the beaks!

At the end of the raspberries (they begin just down from the vegetable patch) will be a rhubarb (I dug one up out of the three at the allotment but am not sure the crown is very healthy as I didn't get it out in one piece). If it doesn't recover I will buy another one when it's time to do so.

Next along the line are the strawberries which till now have lived in a strawberry pot but never had much of a chance as they dried out too often. The hens love the strawberries, in fact they nicked most of the alpine strawberries from the mini barrels they'd been planted in. However, we will cover them up with some protection and of course, surround them with straw next summer to keep the berries off the ground and away from slugs and snails. Behind the strawberries is the premium blackberry which will be trained up the fence and then at the end of the bed is the newly liberated redcurrant. I will keep you informed how it does.