Garden 1 - 20th/21st Feb

Lets see how well I can keep up a blog of what we are doing in the garden.

This morning started out bright and the meteo says sunny intervals, no rain. Felt the urge to 'get out there'.

Cleared the circle round each of the new fruit trees. Started by carefully putting the weeds on the bonfire and then thought that that was ridiculous because the trees are planted along the edge of a field of weeds so then threw them in the hedge where the soil on them might do some good! Then lugged some of M Mazet's cow muck to spread around each one. So they are now all clean and tidy and ready to start growing beautiful fruit. The apple trees show signs of life but the plums/apricot/nectarine/almond are still sticks. I did get them tar oil winter washed (or at least whatever English garden centres sell nowadays without the tar oil in it).

Edged and hand weeded the asparagus, and soft fruit beds. Put some general purpose fertilizer on them. Some raspberry shoots but not a lot else.

Him outdoors had an enormous bonfire yesterday with the branches that EDF cut down in the hedge and while he was playing with it, dug the two potato beds that are up in the top field.

Mid afternoon the sky went completely black and a cold north wind appeared and it is now raining/sleeting heavily. This morning in the two sunny intervals it was warm and birds sang but the rest of the day has been cold and grey and now wet.

Next day started sunny and turned very wintry again. Started weeding flower beds. Wish I could remember what was supposed to be in them! I bought a selection of cheap perennials from Lidl which have merged into the overwintering weeds. Some are obvious and it's a bit early for some so just basically clearing the obvious weeds. Too wet to get on to the beds so just edges.

Him outdoors finished pollarding the lime tree which I started but found too high. I think it's a disadvantage of trifocals that scrambling about in trees is very disorienting - or maybe it's an advantage! He also climbed up an apple tree that we had to cut most of the branches off to prune off some of the unwanted shoots.

An afternoon for reading in front of the fire I think.