Is this a good idea?

Our focus has returned to the new 'Japanese' courtyard and Friday morning, 8 am 10 tonnes of gravel arrived.

So a lot of cardio-vascular exercise in store.

At the end of the afternoon when the energy levels had dropped, we started planting some of the shrubs on the mound.

After day 1

and day 2.

Progress may slow up as we're going to be battling cold mornings and then rain next week

A breath of air

This morning dawned fresh (no frost) and dry so there was a mad scramble to get outside and get dirt under the fingernails.
Sue is developing the woodland bed in the allée and so she began to plant up primulas.

We have a large Japanese maple which we bought autumn 2016 and which suffered terribly in a late frost last year.  So I have now made a 'pot' for it which is more in keeping with this woodland area and we transplanted it this morning.

This turned out to be more difficult than we had thought as the tree was heavier than anticipated and not easy to get it and the bags of compost up the bank without trampling too many daffodils!

But it was good to be out and about.

What a difference ...

... from morning gloom and cold to afternoon sunshine !

Extreme Measures

The cold continues ... -4 forecast for tomorrow Tuesday morning.

 

The Head Gardener is beginning to think she will have lost plants.

Fifty Shades Of Grey

As you know we are always extolling the virtues of living in our "little corner of paradise". However to restore the balance we have to report that paradise has "greyed" over recently. So far 2018 has been very grey and wet. To add to the dismal scene we rose today to a spattering of snow and a forecast of temperatures rising to 1 degree.

I appreciate that some of you have far worse......but I just hate grey weather.

Keeping Busy

On our return from the UK we were concerned to see signs of Spring and it was only mid-January; the Head Gardener is starting to feel pressure!  Yesterday she completed the weeding of the ground at the foot of the hedge in front of our neighbours and planted it up with Hypericum obtained from a 'plant swap'.

It will be interesting to see how they fare as there is not much sun on that side of the hedge.

Today we continued with collecting 'green compost' from our recycling centre to use as a mulch on the Serpentine bed.  We're sure that the lady running the site thinks we are mad english people.

Sue insisted on filling the bags whilst I humped them and loaded the car.  We've done a few previous trips but today we completed covering the Serptentine bed in front of the house.

Rum and cokes were definitely called for!