A good day for gardening once more. As I surveyed the scree garden the following questions ran through my head: Do I clear the leaves from around the newly pruned specimen plants before the new growth starts? Or do I get rid of the piles of leaves that had gathered around the grasses before the wind blows them across the already cleared parts of the scree garden? Or do I pick up the leaves on the path before they get crushed into many pieces making the whole job 10 times harder? Answer - Yes, yes & yes. In other words it all needs doing ASAP. So I did some around the path and some around the plants. One or two more sessions and maybe the whole job will be done. There have been a few casualties this winter. The lithospermum (lithodora) Heavenly Blue doesn't look too good. Neither does a big clump of osteospermum. At first I thought it was all killed by the cold but there are some green leaves appearing so I've cut everything else back to the green stems and will hope for the best. The rosemary looks to have the same disease as the one on the wall. Again I've cut back hard but it may soon be ending up on the bonfire. A phlomis itlaicum (soft grey leaves & pink flowers) looked dead last spring but I left it for a whole year just in case it decided to sprout. Unfortunately not, so that got pulled up and thrown. A ceonothus also looks dead but I'll leave it for a while in case it is merely sleeping. On the plus side a pretty pink & white dianthus given to me last year, is full of new growth. I don't intend to buy any plants to fill the gaps but will use spare plants that have self-seeded around the garden. There is a whole row of Frosted Curls in the scree garden path waiting to be re-homed once the ground has warmed up.
The pond is full of life, little skaters whizzing around on top and tadpoles below. I wonder how long before the lake ducks come up for a feast which is what usually happens.
Sundays are usually quiet at the stables next door but today there was a constant stream of horse boxes to-ing and fro-ing for an equestrian event. It sounded like a dressage competition. I used to enjoy dressage but as I managed to fall off in a Prix Caprilli you can tell I wasn't that good, (still came second).
I do hope these people didn't think I was spying on them from the chickens' run.
Me, (taken 15 months ago by Gemma. ) I'm not publicising myself, just posting this one for Elora as there was a problem with the e-mail attachment I sent.
The pond is full of life, little skaters whizzing around on top and tadpoles below. I wonder how long before the lake ducks come up for a feast which is what usually happens.
Sundays are usually quiet at the stables next door but today there was a constant stream of horse boxes to-ing and fro-ing for an equestrian event. It sounded like a dressage competition. I used to enjoy dressage but as I managed to fall off in a Prix Caprilli you can tell I wasn't that good, (still came second).
I do hope these people didn't think I was spying on them from the chickens' run.
Me, (taken 15 months ago by Gemma. ) I'm not publicising myself, just posting this one for Elora as there was a problem with the e-mail attachment I sent. 
