15th March 2006:

Been a while - mostly just waiting for the landscaping to start. But I am getting back into the garden. Had to pot up 300 Meadow Saffron that are now happily flowering. And am clearing out a rose bed (really, the roses had to go) so the house painters can actually get to the house to paint. Many many bulbs have arrived.

I have been buying some decent gardening equipment - a builder's wheelbarrow, good spades and forks and hoes etc. I am so desperate to use them!

My back is aching. I am not used to garden work! It has been almost a year since I have done any serious work in a garden, and now I am suffering for it.

Nights now distinctly autumn. Mornings cold.

More plant catalogues have arrived - one with giant Rhubarb and some lovely Angel's Trumpet in it, both plants I have coveted for a long time.

I have arranged for the gardener to clear out the side garden - I need space for some of those lovely shrubs.

24th March 2006:

The landscaping started on Monday! Thus far (Friday) the front garden has been entirely cleared and levelled to a gently sloping gradient down to where the bog garden will be. We've discovered a water pipe (thankfully still intact) and we've discovered a phone cable (thankfully still intact) and we've discovered that the down pipes from the roof, far from emptying into a storm drain, instead empty into the garden. Very badly - mainly because the old clay pipes were mostly broken and blocked. So these downpipes have now been attached to pvc pipes which drain down to the bog garden area ... which will now become highly boggy indeed. I may even be able to grow water lillies in it!

25th March 2006:

Now that the landscaping has started, thus have I started. Over the past week I have planted out into tiny nursery pots about 200 foxgloves, 30 St Bernard's Lilies and 60 Monkshood. The latter will need to be forced in the fridge and freezer in order to make them germinate, but before then they need 4 weeks of warmth.