Broken Trowel

Now that we've got a couple of days over Easter, the Man of the Place and I are getting some outside jobs done.  We've had almost a week of really good (non-rainy) weather.  We can even walk on the grass without our feet sinking and there is no squelchy noise.

Marigolds

I was so weary of getting the garden dug over and weeded and ready for planting, planting it up and then watching as it never stopped raining all summer long.  This has been happening year after year.  It gets really disheartening.  Last year, I thought, "That's it! I'm not going on a fool's errand again!"  

pumpkins, courgettes and cucumbers

I didn't plant anything.  The greenhouses got tidied up but then ignored.  Wouldn't you know it.  That was the year that we had a lovely warm summer with a normal amount of rain.  So the lesson is. . . don't give up.  You never know when the good year is going to arrive. 

fuchsias showing life again

The winter, though wet was VERY mild.  I only remember scraping the car once and we saw some snow fall once but it didn't stay more than an hour.  This means that the fuchsias over wintered very nicely.  Out of 15 assorted fuchsia plants there are 14 survivors. That'll save me some money.  I will have lots of lovely flowers in hanging baskets this year.

Green house back in production

On the left side of the greenhouse, the mice can climb up on the staging.  They'll eat any seeds that are in seed trays.  They'll dig them out of the compost to do that too.  So, large plants and plants that mice won't eat to the left.

larger plants to the left

I also discovered they will eat some seedlings.  After resowing the cauliflower seeds, all vegetable seedlings are kept on the right side of the greenhouse.

seeds to the right where there are fewer mice

The trowel broke today.  I was planting out the sweet pea plants and it just bent.  I straightened it out but when it bent again, it snapped.  Time for a new one.

I have a grand total of four sweet pea wigwams and still have twelve plants left to put out.  I am giving those away.

Perhaps the label "Lazy" won't be so accurate this year.

Apple Trees

I'm really really looking forward to this year!  I have planted two new trees and this is the first spring that they will be in bloom.

A number of years ago I was given two apple trees as a gift. The varieties were Discovery and James Grieve. Those trees are Group 3 pollinators for Bramley's Seeding apples, (the best cooking apple ever).  The high maintenance Bramley needs two pollinators.  At the time the trees were planted, I knew that  I would be getting a cooking apple tree.  I thought I'd plant a Bramley tree a few weeks later, but I never did.

Years rolled by and I never got around to planting the cooking apple tree that these trees were designed to pollinate.  This year could see the (literal) fruition of my long term plans as I now have two young Bramley trees.  I planted them when my two grandsons were born.

I'll be stopping there.  There are now four apple trees in the back garden.  If I am lucky enough to get additional grandchildren, I will plant something else.

Lennox turned one year old on the tenth of last month.  Isn't he a darling?!  Jack is going to be one year old this week.  Here he is brushing his curls.

They are pretty close in age and development.  It is fun to see who does what first and watch as their personalities develop.  Lennox is the chatterbox.  He can't say words yet but he imitates the sounds and patterns of speech so well.  Jack isn't as vocal, but he has four teeth rather than two and seems to have a an encouraging trend toward tidiness.  He likes to put all his toys in one spot (an unused baby seat or empty basket) as part of playing.

So while these boys are busy with growing up, their Nana is tending her garden and  planning to make lovely things with the apples that grow in the garden.