Planting at last

Well, it's only a smoke bush but it's the first of hopefully many plants in this border. After literally months of digging out around 25 tonnes of subsoil from this bed that had been mixed in when the sewage treatment unit was installed, we have finally begun to backfill with some lush topsoil/compost, meaning that the planting can begin! It may not look much, but it feels like a huge milestone.

Water pipe

The water pipe serving Ron and Barbara's house ran under our kitchen before entering theirs. Whilst he was installing their sewage unit, Geoff has diverted the water pipe so that it will not hold up our extension, and in the process has run a water pipe down to our allotment - there is no excuse next year for having small carrots!



I think it's about time we had another bonfire. And maybe time to order another skip...

Foxgloves

The woodland garden has really begun to take shape. The hellebores have been and gone as have the leucojum vernum, and finally the foxgloves have begun to flower.

The green green grass

After a dose of Eliza and some much needed rain, our grass is starting to look like a real lawn - what riches!

Our house

This year the field in front of us is planted with rape. It may smell a bit cabbagey around here, but it looks really pretty.

Pergola

Mab has been hard at work chopping down and stripping chestnut poles in an attempt to recreate Toby's pergola from Gardeners World. So far it's looking good.

Chicken watching

This has become one of our favourite pass-times.

Year two of the veggie patch

Spurred on by Ron who has just completed the rebuild of his fruit cage which collapsed in the snow, I begun a mission to build mine. And to tidy up the edges of the veg beds...

Digging

It is all too much. I can't dig any of the currently planned borders until the retaining wall is built and the roof of the outside toilet is repaired. This means no planting yet. So today we started to dig a new border so that I can finally begin to plant some pretty things.