2nd August 2006:

Well, here we are at August. Everything still aches abominably, there is still a mountain of work to be done ... but ... the other day an extra order of climbing roses arrived and I managed to get them planted out the same day. Amazing!

Site inspection has been done. There are still a handful of things to be tidied and fixed, but mostly I guess the landscaping is done. For me it is the end of almost 18 months of various builders and building work going on about me - the peace and quiet that beckons is too seductive for words.

Many of the hyacinths are out, some of my special daffs are on their way, some of the peonies are sending up bright red shoots. (And some are not, which is a worry ...).

Currently I am in the midst of a manic planting out of some 500 lilies (I have left them almost too late, and they have 2 inch shoots on them) - might plant out some of the paper birches today and plant out lilies about them.

The tree gardenia hedge is planted.

I am desperate for spring and for things to grow!

Here is my recently completed vegetable garden. Note the compost bins!

 

Later: I watered this morning, and took off the caps of straw from the manferns ... and look! Four or five of the manferns (and two of the big ones) are uncurling huge fronds! The ones in the picture below are each the size of my doubled fists. It is moments like this you remember why you do all the damned, hard work.

 

 

6th August 2006:

Tiny, tiny signs of spring, everywhere. I am at that stage now where I travel the garden each day, fingering branches, checking soil, looking for that first flush of green, that initial flurry of life.

I love it.

Everything is, of course, still mud or mud and 6 inches of lucerne hay. But still ... there is something in the air ... if this were a horror movie (the jury is still out on whether or not this enterprise actually is!) then by now you'd be hearing the throbbing hum of eerie music in the background.

But it is a garden, and all I have (thankfully) are gently uncurling manferns. Hydrangeas who are starting to spring way too early (for a gardener who needs to plant them out), the birds are everywhere.

I lay down atop the lucerne covered mud in the front garden yesterday and took this shot:

You don't see the mud, but ... somehow this is actually starting to feel like a garden.

What have I done this week? Well, still constantly planting. Yesterday I planted out more windflowers, and the remaining two giant rhubarb. All the lilies are in. Much of the front garden is mulched. All the fairy wands are in. The paper birches are in. Many of the clematis are in. All the chocolate vines are now in. The cat enclosures have expanded. Oh, and over the past 2 weeks I have also put in some solar garden lighting which looks lovely, but whose wires (for the path fairy lights) is constantly being ripped up by my wheelbarrow or the hose!

And the manferns continue to grow ...

That is, I think, the most lovely shot. Beautiful sky, the bare walnut branches, and the ancient manferns uncurling ...

13th August 2006:

Spring continues to tease - and it is getting nicer and nicer working in the garden. Somehow having the sun shining makes all the difference.

I looked about yesterday and realised that most of the garden is planted - there is still so much to do and to cram in somewhere (if I don't start transplanting those fox gloves soon then they are going to die on me) - but the garden is more planted than not, and while the end is not in sight (no garden work is ever ended) at least now I feel as though the garden is more friend than foe.

The manferns just continue to unfurl - I adore them. Much planting over the past week - more roses, Lily of the Valley, Solomon's Seal, Jacobean lilies, some of the clematis, asparagus, vegetable beds dug out and compost dug in, weeding, mulching. The woodland grove now looks like a woodland grove, albeit one in its early infancy. I wish the walnut tree would sprout and green up - even though the temperature remains very low - about 12 Celsius for most days, the sun is very strong.

No rain - unbelievable. This year has been incredibly dry.

16th August 2006:

Another forty hostas in, some thirty of about two hundred foxgloves planted, thirty Japanese iris into the bog garden, as well some zebra rush (or reed), odd bits tied, staked and cajoled onto lattice, much watering done.

I was thinking yesterday that I feel as though I have spent the last five months climbing a massive fence. Now I have finally got my leg over the top, one arm, and I can glimpse the other side.

I like what I see.

Although gardening is by its very nature never ending, I can now see a finality to this initial stage of mad, rushed planting.

Many daffodils out, the hyacinth path looks just glorious, seven of the ten giant manferns are now sprouting and the other three are definitely thinking about it, while about half of the smaller ones are sprouting. The clematis are waking up, the chocolate vines have discovered the mesh of the cat enclosures to crawl over, the weeds have been mild surprising in their mostly nonexistence, and I haven't seen a snail for months.

Life isn't too bad right now.

20th August 2006:

Planting continues.

Very strong winds, constant, for three days last week - some wind damage to new and tender plants, but mostly things survived, with a little propping up, fairly well. Still extremely dry.

There are a few photo opportunities though: The new mint grows well in sunshine, and a very windblown daffodil seeks shelter in the corner of the sandstone steps and a pot.

 

 

27th August 2006:

You know, I had thought that I had my leg over that damn fence and any moment now I'd be over the other side ... but I think I've slipped back ... need to concentrate on hooking my leg over the top again ...

Spring is here. The paper birches and silver birches and the robinias are definitely budding. The raspberries are greening up. The clematis are taking off (yesterday I spent all damned day putting together some flat pack frames for them - what a waste of a day. Two frames assembled and one strained right arm and not much else accomplished). My peonies are growing *relief*. The walnut tree is budding, and the manferns are just exploding. I need the walnut tree to green up to provide some shade for the mystic grove - at the moment it is way too exposed.

But then so too are the weeds exploding. So in addition to the planting, which is just never-damned-ending, I must also squeeze in weeding and mulching. I am looking forward to the day when I can do some sitting and enjoying, too.

The vegetable garden is starting to take shape - currently I have many onions and leeks in (finally I found leek seeds!), the potatoes are set out to sprout and I will plant them in cages hopefully within a couple of weeks, and the seedlings are doing OK.

29th August 2006:

Today is good day - the old silver birch and the ancient hawthorn hedge have produced their first faint sheen of greenery - spring is officially here! Now all the young 'uns must catch up.