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| Blue sky!!! |
Despite the weather I am making progress, by the end of Thursday the only bit of the nursery and gardens still to have its spring tidy up is the stock beds and its borders, yeh! Raking the leaves off the bankings above and below the herb garden was good warm work on a cold Thursday as was barrowing down the rest of the compost for the herb garden. It was a relief to have the water system defrost so I could water the plants in the sales area, which sounds odd considering how much snow we have had. The very cold strong winds we've had over the past week or so have really dried out some plants and it was crucial to get water into them as soon as the compost and water system and defrosted.
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| The herb garden before tidying |
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| After |
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Mr Toad unwittingly hitched a lift in the wheel barrow from the compost heap to the herb garden!
He is now tucked up in a compost heap that won't get turned for a few months yet |
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| David and the doglet were away in York all last week keeping his mum company, so while the doglets away, the cats have been having a ball and taking over the house again |
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Successful wee pop up shop in Tarbrax today at the community cafe, great to catch up
with lots of people too |
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| Some welcome spring colour at home |
Its great to have David home and over the weekend we got a lot of tasks done in the nursery and small jobs finished off. We finally got all the new pots brought up to the wee shop and displayed, the new heathers were delivered and are now on a table in the sales area adding colour and interest to inspire customers.
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| Pansies in the sales area |
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| Colour and interest for spring in the sales area |
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| Some of our new range of pots |
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| Great sky on the way home from the nursery |
In the garden at home there are signs of life, despite the weather. Daffodils are poking their leaves through the soil, the early spring flowers of Hellebores and Pulmonaria are coming out and lots of new perennial shoots beginning to emerge.
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Crocus 'Cream Beauty' in an alpine trough
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| Grapevine in the greenhouse |
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| One of my own Hellebore seedlings |
Once the gardens are tidied it's great to see the new growth coming through, ready for another year, and amazing how much green there can be through winter if we choose the right plants. Here are some of the herbs in the herb garden already purring on growth or that have been semi-evergreen through winter.
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Allium schoenoprasum, chives, Carum carvi caraway,
Angelica archangelica, Sanguisorba minor |
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Salvia officinalis sage, Juniperus communis, Thymus serphyllum albus,
Artemisia absinthium 'Lambrook Mist'
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| Great to see Hengest, Vortigern and Jimmy have survived winter in the herb garden pond |
For a brief few days at the weekend the weather was warmer and it felt like spring was on it's way at last. warmer and sunny. Kelly was in on Sunday and we got all the planted borders in the stock beds cut back, weeded and tidied, then I spent the afternoon barrowing up bark to put on some of the borders and compost for the others while Kelly sowed another batch of seeds. it is great when I can finally cross off a big job like tidying the gardens for spring.
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| The tidied borders in the stock beds |
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| With compost mulch |
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Bark mulch to help keep the weeds
under control |
In March when I start sowing seeds I need to start moving pants out the tunnel to make room for the seed trays so it can be a bit of a juggling act depending on the weather and how cold it is. This year has been particularly tricky with it being so cold and snowing right through March, so I've been moving out the plants that hopefully will cope and keeping my fingers crossed so I can get on with seed sowing. The plants moved out come over to the main nursery where they are potted to go out in to the stock beds once those are tidied and space is made. David has been writing lots of new labels for the stock beds and gardens, this will make it easier for customers to identify plants they like and find them in the nursery to buy, it's all beginning to look very smart. Below are more plants in the nursery gardens beginning to flower and grow, lots of foliage with great texture and colour for early spring interest.
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| Crocus 'Pickwick', Stachys byzantina 'Big Ears', Sedum 'Karfunkelstein', Primula 'Old Port' |
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Helictotrichon sempervirens, Digitalis ferruginea, Valeriana phu 'Aurea',
Thalictrum aquilegifolia |
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| Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens', Sedum 'Herbsfreude', Potentilla thurberi 'Monarch's Velvet', Solidago rugosa 'Fireworks' |
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| Some days just have to be giant strawberry tart days! |
Last year every Tuesday on our day off we managed to get out and visit somewhere interesting, this year we haven't managed anything. This has been due to illness, the continual bad weather and my father in laws death and David being away in York for a while to be with his Mum. Last week, we managed to have a day together but it was more a catching up on tasks day than a proper day out, hey ho. We did finally purchase a sofa bed to turn the spare room into a proper spare room rather than a dumping room, cat bedroom place! With new bedding and getting rid of the old, very unpleasant bunk beds and junk it is now a presentable room we can have guests to stay. We had lunch out and did some other shopping too, so in the end it was good to cross some outstanding jobs off the list.
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| Co-pilot and navigator on our way home from our shopping trip |
So that's our week, winter isn't finished with us yet and I can't remember the last time I felt properly warm! My electric blanket on the bed is still on every night and the heater is still on in the greenhouse. We better get a decent summer after all this.
Any one else totally fed up with the weather? Have a good week and I hope the sun shines wherever you are.
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All contents and photographs © Rona, unauthorised reproduction & use of these images is strictly forbidden, thank you
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