In my defense I've been really busy and not well. This cold has taken a hold again and not going, leaving me exhausted by the end of the day, which is daft being only a cold! So the time I usually spend catching up with stuff in the evening has been spent sleeping on the sofa! We're still not out of winter yet, the temperatures barely hit 4C this week and there were frosty nights and more snow. On the positive side the snow hasn't been as bad as forecast some nights and it was a relief to wake on Wednesday morning and find none of the heavy snow that had been forecast overnight. The day was dry, if cool, with lovely blue skies and sun. (I jinxed it from there as there was sleet and snow in the afternoon!)
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| A lovely start to the day at the nursery |
I started my working week in the usual routine: doing the cafe flowers, catching up with the guys in the cafe and treating myself to a mocha. The flowers this week reflected Mothers Day on Sunday, a pink rose, Gypsophila and some greenery. Then it was on with out door work, yeh! I started on the big bed up the left side of the track into the nursery. The soil here is bad, heavy clay, lots of stones, water-logged when it rains but as with most clay soils the plants do well. This is down to clay soil being rich in nutrients and choosing the right plants for clay soil (I feel another blog coming on here.)
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| Flowers in the cafe for Mothers Day |
Once I'd weeded the first part of the border I top dressed with home made compost. This will let in air and open up the clay soil, feed the plants and act as a mulch. Typically as I was getting on so well, the snow started at lunch time! The tools were packed away and onto wet weather jobs in the covered area. I sorted out the discounted plants, weeded, top dressed and moved them to the shelves next to the shade tunnel. These plants are looking for a home at a bargain of £2 each, they have lost their labels but are still good plants. I got some admin and potting done and a new planter put together. This is a black and yellow combination of Salix, Omphiopogon and Heuchera. Once it's filled out a bit more I'll put up some photos. Then it was an evening the usual chores of food shopping on line, feeding the horde and catching up at home. I also got some money stuff sorted out in my favour (for a change) refund coming my way.
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| The cats like to make the most of Bracken being in bed in the morning, Milly enjoying some comfort |
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| Poppy keeping warm on top of the fish tank |
Having got money things sorted yesterday in my favour it was not the case on Thursday, phone call from the bank to say my card number had been used in America! So card was cancelled and that will seven to ten days before a new one arrives, arghhhhhhhh. It was beginning to look like it would be one of those days where one creme egg would not be enough. Still on a positive note the weather was dry and I got twenty barrows of compost mulch onto the drive border I started yesterday. My back had words with me later. I also put some stones between the border and drive to help define the edge. It looks quite good. This also got rid of the pile of compost where we want to extend the stock beds, Two birds and all that.
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| The track tidied, ready for spring |
Elsewhere in the nursery there are signs of life as flowers appear and plants begin to put tentative leaves and shoots above grounds. Looking good this week are Hamamelis 'Diane', Luzula sylvatica 'Hohe Tatre', Crocus, Narcissus 'Tete a Tete' and dwarf conifers. I have started tidying up the stock beds this week and it's good to see the plants beginning to grow.
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| Hamamelis 'Diane' |
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| Lots of colour |
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| Spring is springing |
Friday dawned dry and I spent the day potting, tidying and putting plants on sales tables and doing admin. It's good to see the sales tables filling up and all those wee leaves starting to emerge through the soil. David came over in the afternoon so I could go to the dentist, yuk.
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| Interesting clouds on the way home |
Saturday and a busy day despite the snow, sleet and rain in the morning which gave way to some blue sky in the afternoon. We got lots of new signs up in the nursery thanks to David and his hard work. It was good to catch up with Linda and Andrew over a coffee and Jane and Jim when they visited the nursery. My first task was to bring plants ready for selling over to the nursery from the tunnel. These were mainly bulbs and will help fill up the sales tables. I also potted up the last of the plants from home. We had breakfast pizza for tea which is a bit odd but the horde like it, takes all sort. I'm still dosed up on cold and flu remedies but they, the creme eggs and wine don't seem to be making any difference.
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| Mothers Day and my children know me well |
Mothers Day on Sunday and I was working. We had a busy day and got lots done, several ticks off the endless list. I got on with weeding the borders and tidying the entrance to the native garden. I re-used some logs to create an edge to the borders and top dressed them with compost. Bulbs are beginning to show in the borders too. We headed home to tea being cooked by Daniel and a bag of goodies and cards from my boys.
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| The tidied entrance to the Wildlife garden |
Monday dawned as a beautiful sunny day with clear blue skies and wall to wall sunshine. After a long lie (not bad considering I slept for two hours on the sofa last night!) we decided to make the most of it and head to Kailzie to see the snow drops You can read about our visit in my snow drop blog. It was lovely to wander in the sun and Bracken enjoyed his walk. After lunch in Peebles it was home to get chores and tasks done, including baking and cooking.
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| Bracken the dog at Kailzie |
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| Peebles in the sun |
Tuesday and wedding cake ordering day! I know it's a while away but Betty wanted it ordered and as it's her wedding gift to us, it seemed fair to do it when she wanted. I still hadn't made my mind up for a design right up to the night before. Anyway it's ordered, it's different and quirky. Well you wouldn't expect anything else would you. We then went for lunch which was very nice and we had a good blether.
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| A mocha with cream and glitter! |
Home to house cleaning, chores, catching up and feeling better (didn't last for long). In other news my Hippeastrum has come into flower, it's huge and fabulously over the top. I've also been experimenting with night photography, camera settings and such in amongst everything else. No wonder I'm tired! I hope you've had a good week so far.
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| First attempt at night photography and messing about with camera settings |
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Hope that you're soon on the mend Rona. Make sure that your supply of creme eggs is regularly topped up. Is the nursery open to the public yet for the new season?
ReplyDeleteHi Anna, hope you are well, I am also failing miserably at reading everyone else's blogs at the moment! Not feeling much better but getting on with things. I was lucky and got 2 boxes of creme eggs for mothers day so I am dosing them out at one a day unless it's a particularly stressful day lol! We are open and it's been getting busier which is great, we just need warm sunny weather to get everyone out into their gardens and then out to the nursery :)
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