Garden notes

The rectory garden has proved to be a wonderful distraction for me. While the Rector@6 gets to grip with the six parishes - I am tackling the garden - as I have done in the last two houses we have lived in. The garden is large enough to have a wild garden with a woodland walk at the end - all of about ten metres! The primroses have given over to the bluebells (Spanish unfortunately) and now these are being swathed in drifts of white flowers that I would call sheep's parsley but I'm not sure if that's correct. There are all sorts of other flowers that are finally preparing to brave the variable weather and are raising their heads through the grasses. Each day we see something new.

The shed still has to be moved but we are clearing the ground around it and have put in two raised beds for salad and herb crops. Tess seems to think these are play pits and likes to scuff around in the dry earth. It will be an interesting salad mix if any seeds do manage to germinate. The Rector@6 has spent his day off building the base for the first of two sheds. This is very important for him - it's a man thing I believe!

We have seen owls and bats in the evening. I watched a slow worm making itself very at home in our rockery - so no slug pellets in this garden. The buzzards circle overhead harressing the rooks who are nest building in the surrounding trees. We even had a rather large grass snake sunning itself on a newly cleared patch at the end of the garden - it gave me quite a fright as it slithered away.

A little sunshine makes all the difference but here it seems to bake the soil very quickly and then it is impossible to dig. I have so much to learn.

The vegetable garden is not doing so well especially since a crop of last years potatoes has now started to sprout at right angles to and though all the things I have put in. Tess has no respect for vegetables so most new seedings have to survive a good stamping from the pup! She loves the garden and the extra space she has now - and we are enjoying it too!