Well I have had the rain I wanted at last. It has rained solidly all day but the downside is that it has also been windy and cold. The temperature (not in the shade either) has barely made it to 10 degrees C. But the garden has had a good soaking even if it is now looking bedraggled. My poor Mimulus have taken quite a beating and I don't know if they will recover. On the plus side the dill seedlings are now up and the courgettes are doing well.
This is a picture of my garden helper! He is a regular visitor to the garden and enjoys the sultanas in the bird feeder. It is due to him or her that I have so many hazel trees around the fences. This is a good thing! When we first moved here sixteen years ago the garden was depressing being just a ragged lawn with no actual garden at all. The fences on either side were bare but the Cornish wall at the bottom of the garden was an oasis of trees of all sorts....oaks, hazel, hawthorne and holly. The garden was quite secluded and it was like living in the heart of the country. Especially as we planted shrubs along the side fences. Behind the trees was a caravan park which was only active in the summer months. Then they decided to sell the caravan park for building! They trimmed the trees and we were compelled to put a fence on top of the Cornish stone wall. But still we had trees. Then the new house behind us was sold and the new owner cut down all the trees on her side of the fence which was most of them. We were able to save the oak tree on one side because we had built the fence through it and the hawthorne on the the other because it grew in our garden. This unfortunately eventually rotted and died. But the upshot was that we lost our secluded garden. So with the help of our squirrel we are planting trees like mad! And four years on we are getting there!
I think we've swapped weather, today has been fine up here, sunny and cloudy but warm and most of the day has been spent outside working and having an epic battle getting some grass out of a border. I fully expect to have it come back in the next few months!
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame to hear about your garden, but who'd have thought you'd be thanking a Squirrel?! :) It's always rough waiting for things to mature, especially when you're waiting for hedges/trees, I'm in the same situation and can only imagine how things will look and whether I'll even be in the house to witness them!
Liz isn't that so true. It's the waiting that is the worst part and with trees and shrubs that can be many months if not years.
ReplyDeleteIf you have a lot of grass put black plastic squares over it and it will eventually die completely.
Val
I identify with this post. There is a great deal to be said for imagining one is more remote than one is and trees help. We have lots of birds where I live. (In this we are fortunate.) I lie in bed and listen and imagine I am out in the whiles. Oh! I've never written that before. Is that how you spell that kind of 'whiles'?
ReplyDeleteAnd hazel - I want hazel to grow. I do have a philbert but the hazel appears to have died.
Esther