It's Amazing What you Learn about your Locality

..........when you read the British Newspapers. During the last week everywhere we've been the village signs have been turned upside down. We thought it very strange but had no idea why until we read an article in a UK newspaper. Apparently the Young Farmers are the culprits and it's a protest about just about everything!! The campaign is obviously effective as you certainly can't miss that the signs are upside down, however I question it's effectiveness if you have no idea why. John reads the national/local paper and has not seen any report.

John followed a "tractor snail" of "Adult" farmers in Cahors last week who were also protesting and there have been photos in the paper of loads of manure being dumped at the entrances of official buildings. What a waste!!

No doubt they have a genuine complaint but the French are not known for getting round the table to negotiate.

St Catherine will be Pleased

 Traditionally in France one must plant trees before St Catherine's Day (25th November) inferring that the climatic conditions are good at that time of year for them to establish. Well we are not doing too bad, subject to the odd hitch, explanation to follow. We just have the cypresses to plant and a couple of climbing roses which arrived earlier than expected and are "healed in". We are also proud that we have collected a lot of free compost from the recycling centre and spread it on our beds as a mulch.......still acres more to cover! We must be a sight to behold at the "dechetterie" two old crocks taking it in turns to rake and shovel the compost into the trailer. People are always telling us to reduce the garden, not do so much etc. but I am not ready to do that yet and John just has to take things a bit slower than before.

Well I promised the saga of the pseudoacacia (frisia). Note two has become one, we reflected that John's one was a rediculous price for it's size so he had to make do with a Yew for another bonsai. First we had to lift and pot the cherries we planted last year. Aesthetically we were not happy with their position, hence the frisia was purchased.

 It is obviously a bit of a lottery when you buy on line but we ordered the frisia from our usual online supplier with whom we are very satisfied. Initially the delivery was delayed (wasteing 2 days waiting  for a delivery which did not happen). however when the tree did arrive we were not happy. It was packed atrociously (normally this company have exceptional packaging for their plants) the roots were dry (supposedly specially treated?) and some branches were broken. We assume it came from a grower who do not observe the same ethos as our regular supplier, and we thought they ought to know.

Over the weekend we soaked the tree, pruned the broken branches and then planted it. In accordance with Alan Titchmarsh's recommendation we then swore at it and now we hope.

 However the supplier has been exceptional (returning to their normal service) and within a day they reminded us that we have a 2 year guarantee (may or may not be realisable when you are approaching 77) and they refunded 50% of the tree price. That I call service and will be pleased to continuing using them.

Our final job on Sunday was to plant the Leylandii (as the rain came down). John had previously lifted the non flourishing sycamores, chopped them in half and potted them up to see if they will grow as bonsai. (Hope springs eternal!!)

We're at it Again

 Buying trees that is. It is the time of year to plant trees except that this year it isn't. In keeping with the rest of Europe we have had virtually incessant rain since Summer ended, in October. We have been debating about replacing a number of trees that we have planted over the years. Yesterday we were fed up with being sent in from the garden by frequent heavy showers so we took action.

Three of the Cypresses we planted in the front garden died during the past year. As they had increased in price two and a half times from the last time we bought them we thought long and hard about replacing them but as the scheme relies on them we took the plunge.

The sycamores we planted when we first started to develop the back garden look the same as the day they were planted. Each year we talk about replacing them, well they are finally for the chop to be replaced by Leylandi. I can hear the gasps!! However I will explain the thinking behind this "unusual" choice. Firstly conifers do very well in our garden and leylandi grow very fast and make beautiful specimen trees. The nursery had some very nice significantly grown ones 3 to 4 metres tall but we immediately questioned how these two "ageing" gardeners were going to handle them. So we settled on 3 that were just over a metre high. On a recent gardening programme on the radio we heard that young trees are better to plant than older ones. In an experiment recently carried out a young tree had caught up a much older one within 2 years.

Naturally a strole around the nursery prompted more purchases, an azalea for me and a juniper for John to bonsai. We have not finished yet 2 pseudoacacias are on order on line, a yellow one for me and a contorted one for John. We are not noted for doing things by halves! Furthermore we have literally thousands of tulip bulbs to plant and 30 grasses. Goodness knows when we will be able to get them in the ground as the forecast is more rain. As gardeners we will always be moaning about the weather. At least we have not had any frosts yet and all our tender plants are under cover.