Some of the week has been spent decorating the house, but in between sloshing on the gloss I have made it outside.
I have begun weeding the side border, mostly because it's easier going than the new border near the path. The dead conifer has been hoiked out along with several brambles and lots of Geranium lucidum, which seems to have self seeded everywhere! I have discovered an Arum maculatum (Lords and Ladies) and a few crocuses. The latter have been replanted under the Gingko.
At the top of the border I removed another hexagonal slab, and planted the Rosemary and Thyme that was in a pot from the old house. Both these plants looked rather sad, and I discovered a couple of vine weevil grubs in the compost. These were squashed immediately and I had a good rummage for more. There were still live roots on the plants so I chopped back the foliage before planting and gave them a dose of seaweed fertiliser afterwards. Fingers crossed. I also planted a Lavandula angustifolia 'Munstead' nearby.
A friend popped round for a cuppa on Thursday morning and brought five bags of plants from her garden for me. Really kind and generous of her! I now have lemon balm, Lamium, harts tongue fern, primroses, hellebores, mallow, oregano, lemon potentilla, hollyhock, and another whose name I have forgotten. The primroses have been planted under the Gingko and everything else has been potted up.
On Friday I raked over the border next to the Gingko and sowed a selection of wildflower seeds that were lying about, watered them in and then covered with chicken wire to keep the cats off. We also bagged up the remaining sedges, brambles and assorted weeds and disposed of them at the tip.
Sunday: I bought a cowslip plant and a rhubarb plant from a roadside stall today for the princely sum of 50p each. Yesterday I continued to weed the side border and potted up some Saponaria I found there, as well as another plant, as yet unidentified. The Saponaria, or "Soapwort", has taken root all the way along, so shall be brutally thinned out.
On Friday I raked over the border next to the Gingko and sowed a selection of wildflower seeds that were lying about, watered them in and then covered with chicken wire to keep the cats off. We also bagged up the remaining sedges, brambles and assorted weeds and disposed of them at the tip.
Sunday: I bought a cowslip plant and a rhubarb plant from a roadside stall today for the princely sum of 50p each. Yesterday I continued to weed the side border and potted up some Saponaria I found there, as well as another plant, as yet unidentified. The Saponaria, or "Soapwort", has taken root all the way along, so shall be brutally thinned out.
Wildlife this week:
- Brimstone butterfly
- Cabbage White butterfly
- Frog
- Woodlice
- Black spiders
- Woodlouse spider
- Red money spider
- Robin
- Blackbirds
- Pigeons
- Herring gull
- Crows
- Yellow banded snail
- Zebra spider
- Mallards (fly past)
- Black ants in the compost bin
- Common snails
- Various slugs
 |
| Primroses |
 |
| Plant gifts |
 |
| Arum maculatum |
No comments:
Post a Comment