Working hard in the garden.

I don’t normally write a weekend blog, but I've been working so hard in the garden today I wanted to share it with you. After getting the daily chores out of the way and having a visit with my Dad, he told me to go as it was his lunch time, so I left him to it. I got home and after a much needed cup of tea and a bag of ready salted crisps, I know how to live, I headed out to my poorly neglected garden.

I started with the mowing of the lawns. I say lawns, but to be honest it is mostly a mix of meadow grass, weeds and moss, but it still needs cutting. This was the first cut of the year, and I was surprised how well my old mower coped with the length and slight dampness of the grass.

After this I set about doing a little weeding and sorting out of pots, there are still many pots to sort out! I cut back the honeysuckle and pruned the baby pink rose and discovered the tulip bulbs have grown and have flower heads. They were hiding behind grasses and stinging nettles. And for once I didn't sting myself.

Then after an orange club biscuit I grabbed the loppers and started cutting back the second giant buddleia. It had to be at least 16’ tall, much bigger than me. I cut back with the loppers as much as I could, and then resorted to the saw for the larger branches that were four to five inches thick. This took rather a lot longer than I had anticipated. But it is down and now just needs to be burnt once it has dried off a bit.

 I didn't get to prune back the pear tree as I will need another pair of hands to ensure that the branches that I cut off are pulled away from the neighbour’s fence as I don’t want it smashing them down, as they were newly erected last summer. I did a little pruning of the lower branches but the larger ones, which are once again over 14’ tall I will need help.

I'm about to make up my new barbecue/log burner ready for use and make up my plastic greenhouse. I'm looking forward to growing my own seedlings this year, so I’ll be sowing seeds tomorrow on Monday.

I've loved my time in the garden. I'm looking forward to getting it looking beautiful once again. I must ensure I am more proactive with my gardening care this summer and going on into the winter.