Apple Blossom and a little French Beauty!

My favourite time of year has to be Spring and early summer and in particular apple blossom time. Having grown up in a rural part of the country where apple orchards and 'blossom' trails were a seasonal feature, it's a  joy to have an old variety apple tree in our front garden.

Years of neglect meant we inherited a tree that was barely recognisable, in need of a prune and absolutely smothered in ivy. The 'family firm' soon set to work not long after our move and within a few days we'd uncovered a pretty tree and lovingly pruned her into shape - with a little expert help from my mum!

The following spring at 'Mole End' was cold and wet and the blossom a bit disappointing to say the least. Cold winds and rain soon blew the flowers away and the sound of buzzing bees conspicuous by their absence! What a shame....we would have to wait a whole year to see if our tree would fully recover.

Well....what a difference a year makes! Sunshine and warmth, a lot less rain and our little tree has come up trumps! Smothered in gorgeous fragrant blossom and buzzy bees busily going about their duty. Our local bird population has grown too - regular visits from nuthatches, blue tits, woodpeckers, robins, goldfinches, chaffinches, yellowhammers and of course our resident population of noisily chatty sparrows.

...and here is a photo of our tree in full bloom, enhanced by a visit from our friend Colin and his Citroen 2CV...don't they make a pretty pair??

Christmas Wreath 2012

Here is this year's Christmas wreath made from holly and ivy from the garden, moss from the hedgerows and a few bits and pieces from the local garden centre!

At least I didn't have to make the wire frame having made one from coat hangers last year which I squirreled away until needed again for the festive season!

Happy Christmas Everyone!!

Slug Patrol!!

It's been a wet old Summer and apart from the last week we've had endless days of relentless rain and greyness! Good for the lawn and my newly planted borders but not so good for butterflies, bees & fledgling birds. We've kept up the bird feeding regime front and back and hopefully most of the young blue tits, robins and sparrows that visited our feeders through the spring and summer have now survived into adulthood.

Meanwhile the slug and snail population has thrived during the wet weather so my young Hostas and Lupin plants are a prime target for slug and snail raids! Amazingly so far no sign of damage though....and the Hosta has gorgeous flower spikes - maybe something to do with being on a gravel base - or could it be something to do with our nocturnal visitor?

We've spotted him several evenings at dusk, trotting down the lawn and into the borders. Hedgehogs like a supply of water, so the shallow dish of water left out for our doglett also provides our resident hedgehog with a welcome drink plus he can slip under the fence into our neighbour's garden and forage for more yummy squelchy snacks!

Whatever the reason...we're lucky to have our little prickly visitor. Hedgehogs are in decline and their population has plummeted dramatically over the last 10 years. No one knows quite why but a combination of loss of habitat, pesticides, overly tidy gardens and natural predators have all contributed to the demise of this charming species.



Let's hope that our efforts to help one Hedgeyhog will bring more baby hogletts into the world!
And if you want to find out more - here's a link to the British Hedgehog Society:

http://www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/ 

Something Nasty in the Woodshed!!

When  you move house, you don't expect to take on other people's rubbish! We arrived at our new home last Autumn to find bags of rubbish in the front garden, the back garden home to an enourmous metal hammock, random plastic pots and old chairs, the garage full of old furniture, bits of wood, a dusty roll of old insulation and to cap it all...the front garden shed and storage areas full of old tins of paint, rusting power tools, boxes of rusting screws, ironmongery and random electric stuff....and that's just for starters!

Needless to say we had so much to do elsewhere in the house  - so sorting out the front garden shed was low on our list of priorities and in any case the winter months too cold for outdoor jobs. However a couple of weekends ago we had a dry sunny day after weeks of rain. Time to find out just what was in the woodshed!

It took most of the day sorting, sifting and cleaning....disposing of old paint is not easy these days, you can take this kind of stuff to a paint recycling centre but most of the pots were too old or not big enough quantities for that and you can't just take it to the dump if the paints are still liquid which most of these were - so we've had to book in an appointment at a specialist waste centre in Warwickshire where a chemist is on hand to identify the materials and officially sign them off!

We did find a few items of interest  amongst the mayhem though....a box of radio valves, a hydrometer, a couple of 'order of the road' badges, an old printing press and some wooden planes....I can feel a car boot sale coming on!

In the meantime, we've repainted the shed and tidied up the shelves so now it's the perfect place for potting up my fledgling plants and veggie seedlings!

Truffle and her friend like it too!

Dog-Proofing the Garden!

Now don't get me wrong...I love my dog but I also love my garden too! However there are times when a conflict of interests between recently planted up flower beds and an over-enthusiastic bouncy Spaniel mean that drastic protection measures have to be taken!

Our dog Truffle's route to the back gate and walks beyond take her through the garden via her own well-trodden path. Unfortunately the route for this is via my yet to be planted up veggie plot and a small border behind the rockery. So ....mmmm what to do?

She's a bright little doggie and since she was a puppy we taught her the 'off' word. We would hold a treat in front of her and when she went to take it we would hold it firm and say 'off'' until she learnt to wait for the 'ok' command that meant she could be rewarded by taking the treat.

So - having build up the side borders in the garden with log roll, she's learnt that these are now 'off' limits and no longer ventures over them but she still treats the veggie patch as a through route. So - I still have some willow sticks and bits of hazel left over from the main fence and I reckon that if I build up a bit around my veg plot and border opposite she will learn that these are now out of bound doggie areas!!!

I've also included some pots and plants as further deterrents around the opposite border and hoping that these will be enough to convince that areas beyond are no-go!

So far so good and the new regime working well...dog looks a bit bemused though!

Rockery Revival

It's taken a while but I've finally got to the focal point of the garden - the rockery. Another overgrown and sadly neglected part of the garden that was crying out for some TLC.

Dominated by a wierd looking water-feature that barely worked apart from glowing in the dark when switched on via the under-lawn electricity cable!

It had to go....and unfortunately it was one of those items that we couldn't recycle...so it went to landfill in Warwickshire!

Rosemary, Thyme, Lavender, Marjoram and a hint of Mint...once apon a time it was a herb garden but now overgrown and leggy plants dominate with too many dwarf conifers competing for space.

The good news is that I managed to move a couple of the conifers to another place in the garden  - bad news is that rosemary & lavender had outgrown their welcome, so they had to go -  there is a point at which even when cut back these 'leggy' plants won't regenerate successfully...so the only solution is to dig out and start again!

Still on the recycling mission I managed to find enough Cotswold stones from the garden to rebuild the rockery and create a space for new plants. Thyme, Lavender, some Irises (which should love this sunny spot), sedums and rock roses. Lots to look forward to in the summer when they start to bloom and hopefully if we can withstand the drought, a cheerful bit of colour at the centre of the garden!

Spring Time and April Showers

It's been a long wait during the winter months but Spring is definitely here at last together with some much needed April showers! Every day the hedgerows green up a little more and the Ash tree buds are just poised to burst into leaf. I've been busy planting up the borders with a variety of perennials, Skimmia Japonica, Hellebores, Foxgloves, a climbing Japonica and a lovely little plant called erythronium pagoda.

Early days yet and lots of gaps, but it's a start!

Our Tree Peony is doing really well, and having survived the winter and our pruning now has some promising looking buds on the top branches...not long now before we find out what variety it is!

Meanwhile...in the front garden a real treat....a little Clematis Alpina growing amongst the Ceanothus - delicate sprays of gorgeous blue flowers peek through the leaves and brighten up a shady corner.

Meanwhile, the apple tree is slowly coming to life too but mother thinks this one is a biennial variety which means we may not get blossom! :( Now that  would be a real disappointment.... so I'm hoping that for once mother is wrong and that we will soon have a tree in glorious bloom. The Jury is out on this one....only time will tell!

The Last Bit of Hard Labour

Finally coming to the end of soil sifting, slab laying and general hard labour! The last bit of the garden that needed sorting out in terms of landscaping was the bit under our kitchen window. Originaly a mess of old gravel, a few random plants, old pots and general rubbish.

How to make sense of this? Well...the soil sifting took a couple of weekends, but thanks to some serious gravel washing and relaying of slabs (more recycled ones), a little bit of help from Mr F -  plus an edging from bricks donated by a friend of mothers the area is slowly transformed into something better.

It's the shadiest part of the garden though, so finding plants that will thrive here is going to be quite a challenge but looking forward to a voyage of discovery!

A Woven Hazel Fence.

Back in January I kept puzzling on what to do about our rather scruffy garden boundary. Having cleared some of the overgrown ivy around our resident ash tree and cut back the brambles, the challenge was to find a way of creating a good-looking fence that somehow blended in with its natural surroundings. I'm not sure where the inspiration came for this one but perhaps it had something to do with driving around the neighbourhood and  noticing beautifully laid hedgerows complete with woven toppings!

Not being an expert on the subject I did a bit of digging on the internet and concluded that perhaps a continuous woven hurdle style fence might just work, not too difficult to do once you get the hand of it were my thoughts... Hazel rods would be ideal for this - but where to find?

Back on the internet and a search for sustainable coppice woods and I find a woodland just outside Oxford. It's a lucky break - I'd tried several leads only to find that they had all sold their 2012 harvest in advance so I'm grateful to have found someone willing to sell me her entire crop for the year and able to deliver to my door!

Unfortunately snow for two weeks meant no progress but at last a break in the weather and finally I get to finish a project started just over a month ago!

It took just over 200 hazel rods, 20 odd stakes and 150 Willow rods (an afterthought) to create the fence. My first attempt was a mess, so I unpicked the lot and started again! To get a good solid fence you need to position the stakes at intervals close enough to create a strong weave but not too close so that the rods are put under too much stress and break.

Each layer builds up and although straight rods are ideal, even the more bendy ones can be interwoven in strategic places....and as ever, Truffle the doglett is always around on lookout duty!

The final cut and I add a layer of willow rods which tidy things up nicely, a quick trim of all the whispy hazel bits and levelling out of  the hazel stakes....and all finished!

It's pretty sturdy without blocking out light, blends nicely with it's surroundings and the garden birds love their new continuous perch. Just need a few plants for the border now!

Freecycle and Recycle

January isn't the most inspiring month when it comes to gardening, grey skies, short days and cold nights - so most of the work now is maintenance and clearing. I've started building a woven fence on our garden border but more of that in a couple of weeks when my supply of hazel coppice rods arrive!!!

In the meantime I take my hat off to Oxfordshire County Council for their recycling strategy - in spite of the fact that our nearest recycling centre is in Warwickshire since the local Oxfordshire depot closed! Here we have weekly collections of plastic, metal, fabric, packaging, paper, tin and glass which means that our non-recyclable black bins are down to one bag a week.

The only problem with all this recycling lark is we have to find space for all the containers (4 black boxes for general recycling and 2 wheelie bins). Luckily we have an area in the front garden that accommodates them ....but it's all a bit of a mess. Time for a bit of a re-organise methinks but I need to find some paving slabs in order to sort it all out.

So - a quick post on our local 'freecycle' network and a plea for slabs brings a result and a nice lady from a nearby village contacts me to say she has a number of slabs looking for a new home.

Saturday morning and a few hours on Sunday shifting soil and laying up slabs and we have a result!!! Ok it's not the most inspiring part of the garden but surprisingly enough there are little nooks and crannies now where I can plant up and the whole area has given us lots more space and tidied up nicely!

Here's the before:

And here's the after:

Making up the Christmas Wreath!

I've never made one of these before but inspired by a recent episode of 'Gardeners World' on the box and a stallholder selling similar at Stratford market, I decide it's time to have a go!. The challenge as ever in the Fothergill household is to see if it's possible to make one up entirely from foraged and recycled items found in and around the garden.

Well, not bad so far...a couple of coathangers and some wire salvaged from the old fencing are a good start!

So now all I need is some ivy (plenty of that around), some holly with berries (in the front garden), moss (foraged from the roadside), some fir cones (erm...well I did have to buy those from the stallholder), some gardening wire (ok ...had to buy that too!) and a bit of ribbon (plenty of that in our resource box)...oh and some chillie peppers (from an old flower arrangement).

All looks a bit of a mess so far but hey ho...this has to be better than Sunday afternoon ironing! First thing is to wind some ivy around the frame and then add in the moss to create a base. A bit fiddly and realise that without some sort of binding the whole lot starts to fall off! So.......off to the local farm shop to buy some garden wire to wind around the structure and pull it all together! Add in the fir cones and it's starting to look promising....interesting bug life emerging too - ladybirds and devils coachmen..will have to put them outside in a mo...

So now - to pretty it all up with some variegated holly with berries, a few bundles of chillie peppers and some ivy berries and flowers to add a bit of colour. Add in a green bow for the final touch and Voila...we have our very own Christmas Bouquet! All from mostly home grown or foraged finds and now hanging prettily in our little porch! Thank you Gardeners World!

Potty about Pots

I've always had a few potted plants in my garden and whilst they can be high maintenance during dry months, there is something rather sculptural about arranging different shapes and sizes of pot with a variety of interesting plants.

At our previous home, most of the borders were in constant shade so if we wanted some colour it had to be from potted plants on the south facing patio.

Here is a different ball game altogether....plenty of borders and space for planting so hardly any need for potted plants. However I can't resist planting up just a few and placing them on the new seating area. Inspired by our local pottery at Whichford and their amazing display of courtyard potted plants I'm off to the local garden centre to see if I can find something that will add a little cheer to our garden during the bleak winter months.

So here we have a little display of pots, Euphorbia Characias, Heuchera, Skimmia Japonica, Carex Brunnera and at the back a newly replanted Mahonia, transplanted from another part of the garden, adding interest and height to the corner of our little veggie plot. Let's hope it didn't notice the move!!!
Oh...and there's that little doglett again!!!

Meanwhile, the terracotta pots newly planted up with bulbs rescued from the borders are already showing signs of life and green shoots are breaking through the compost!

One of the other things we inherited here were 3 water butts. I've always wanted one of these so to have 3 is a total bonus! Perfect for dry summer months when we need water for the garden most and no worries about hosepipe bans when we have our own supply of fresh rainwater or extra water rate charges for use of utilities.

Water is something we all take for granted but in many countries this is simply not the case. This was brought home recently when we went to a local supper at our village hall and listened to a talk by one of our residents who currently volunteers in Uganda at the White Eagle Project. Amongst the many things they do to help local communities including helping to educate street kids, building schools, working with local youths and orphaned children, they are also on mission to bring clean and drinkable water to the community. Whilst we have an endless supply of water in our homes, in Uganda water is a valuable and scarce resource - on many occasions children and adults have to use fetid and stinking water wells as their only source of drinking water when regular supplies dry up.

It is a sobering and humbling experience and I am full of admiration for these young people who give up their time and effort to give people in difficult circumstances a better life. What can I do to make a difference?? 4,000 miles away it seems all rather remote and alien and not quite real. Perhaps though we can all do our bit by spreading the word and thanks to the internet it's easy to do these days.

So...I'm off to sign up and donate a few pounds each month...it's a small contribution but amazing how much of a difference it will make to each individual some 4,000 miles away and maybe through the power of facebook and the internet you can help to spread the word too!!!

www.riveroflifeuganda.org

Once Upon A Time...There Was a Tree!

We are fortunate indeed to have a property that borders onto fields..and beautiful views - morning sunrise and evening sunsets are a daily joy to behold and our neighbouring field is also host to a herd of gorgeous Jersey Cows, intermittent docile residents who gaze at you with their big brown eyes as you walk amongst them.
We also have a number of Ash trees on our boundary that tower above the garden. Not only are they engulfed but literally imprisoned and enslaved by ivy. The ownership of these trees is ambiguous and further investigation tell us that it could be a long journey to define responsibility for maintenance. We've had expert advice but to all intents and purposes any works to the trees is going to be an expensive choice...and probably beyond our budget at this time.

So...what to do. I love trees and am loathe to cut something down just because it gets in the way....there has to be an alternative!

Walking in our local woods, I note that many of the beech trees that have suffered the invasion of ivy have been rescued simply by removing a layer of ivy roots from the base of the tree. Could this work with our resident Ash?? Worth a try methinks.

So here it is...somewhere beyond all that ivy is a tree!!!  "Can you tell what it is yet?"

Mr F was a bit worried when I appeared in the living room wielding an axe! Needless to say..no murderous intentions, he he ... just needed him to help me sharpen the blade.

Several hours later after much hacking, chopping, sawing, swearing and hard labour, a tree emerges and the garden receives more light.

So far the ivy defies all atempts at obliteration, but it's early days and with any luck we will win the battle of the Ivy over the coming winter months and by the Spring, start to remove more dead ivy wood from the branches, slowly bringing back to life our poor neglected and rather lovely Ash Tree.

Birdie Nom Nom

I've always liked to feed garden birds and in our previous house, apart from blue tits, finches and blackbirds, we had a noisy flock of sparrows who lived in the bushes. Each day they would eat their way through a whole feeder of nuts! They had mastered the art so well that they even fed their fledglings from it:

Here in our new home we have quite a different selection of bird visitors. So far we've had nuthatches, goldfinches, long tailed tits, blue tits, sparrows, woodpeckers, robins, blackbirds and today a pair of doves....word must be getting around!

In the mornings it's a feeding frenzy as they flit in and out of the apple tree, the nuthatches are greedy little things and feed upside down, stabbing their beaks at any other birds who dare to disturb their personal space. The sparrows and blue tits are more tolerant of each other and happily feed in groups but when the woodpecker strikes..the other birds are disturbed and fly off into the bushes.

Being messy feeders, quite often the birds will flick bread from the bird table onto the ground... Truffle has cottoned on to this so her enthusiasm for the front garden has become part of the daily routine as she races out there to nom tasty morsels carelessly discarded by the greedy birds!!!

We've tried to get photos of the birds but it's not easy so the best I can do is a little sketch of three types of visitors (not quite up to Mr F standard but it's the best I can do and he's buggered off to Twickenham today...something to do with Rugby, Help for Heros and Wessex Choir).

All very distracting as I gaze out of my office window but such a joy to see more visitors every day, even if it is costing us a fortune in bird feed!

Truffle and the Robin

Our doglett Truffle loves the garden. Any opportunity to be out there and she is in doggie heaven....... and if you haven't already noticed, she manages to feature in many of the photos we've taken of gardening progress to date!

One thing that drives her potty is wild birds. We do our best to educate her that chasing birds is not acceptable behaviour but it's an ongoing battle and her natural instincts - being a Spaniel born of working stock - are hard to suppress. Roosting pheasants clucking in nearby trees at dusk are a particular tease ...on hearing the call Truffle goes into high alert, ready for the big chase into the distant mist.

The Robin is a different ball game altogether. Well known for being territorial - indeed they will fight to the death to defend their territory, our resident read breast is no exception! He seems particularly peeved that we have the audacity to invade his personal space and follows us around the garden watching us with his beady eye.

Truffle in turn, stalks him and watches his every move. Never quite quick enough to catch but just enough to tell him that this is her garden not his. So the stand-off continues and neither party wins.

You would think that Robbie would be grateful for all the tasty morsels we reveal for him but judging by his angry chattering from the shrubbery he is not happy! In fact if I were to translate his chirpings into human language...it would be full of obscenities!

New Dawn....New Lawn!

For some time now mother has been nagging me about the lawn! She's right of course...it's looking a bit tired, full of lumps and bumps, thinning at the edges and a wierd looking water-feature plonked in the middle!             .........Now what does that remind me of????

The electrics for the feature run through a pipe buried under the lawn and when you switch on the thing glimmers in the dark...but that's about all!

Hmmmmmm....more landfill fodder!

A bit of internet searching to find a good supplier of turf....might as well get some gravel for the paths whilst we're at it! Friday morning delivery, 60sqm of turf and a tonne of gravel....not much to do here then!

Mr F is looking worried!

Now all we have to do is prepare the old lawn, wheelbarrow the turf into the back garden and get to work! It's heavy stuff and back-breaking work, how come Mr F is all warm and cosy indoors whilst us girls do all the labouring????

Water feature is no more and we've filled in a few gaps with soil...mum reckons we can lay over the old grass so I'm not going to argue with that. We've calculated that we will have just enough to cover the area so starting from the bottom end of the garden here goes.....

Ideally the whole lot needs to be laid within 48 hours so it's a race against time to finish before dark - and my arms are starting to ache. I'm sure this stuff is getting heavier by the minute!

Job Done and nothing to spare! Now all I have to do is move a tonne of gravel.....but not today!

New Borders

Meanwhile, back in the borders more work to be done. Having cleared out all the random wild trees and self-seeded nut bushes we are left with a few gems previously hidden amongst the overgrown jungle!

All dormant now but hopefully if they survive the winter we will have some lovely Spring blooms to look forward to.

Buddleja-Globosa

A very long time ago when I lived in London I had one of these and the bees love it. We've cut ours back right to the base - seems drastic but you can do this with Buddleja and it will happily regenerate new growth. Situated at the top of the garden in the newly laid veggie plot it will provide a pretty feature next to the patio area.

Tree Peony

At this stage not sure what variety we have but the leaf looks very much like the photo below. We've cut out the dead wood and given the poor thing a bit of support. It was so starved of light it was leaning forward into the garden, desperate to grab sunshine where it could so it's a bit spindly at the moment but there are some promising sticky buds that look pretty healthy so fingers crossed.

Magnolia Tree

Another tree that has survived the purge but only just! Looking a bit tired and weary at the moment but hopefully now that it has space to breathe and light to feed on it will thrive.

The only thing is I'm not sure that these trees are too keen on limestone and ideally prefer acid soil - so the fact that it has survived this far is interesting.

Might have to get the soil testing kit out soon...apparently we have 2 types here as we are borderline limestone so maybe that's why the Magnolia is still hangin on in there!

With the final addition of leaf mould which is in abundant supply thanks to our enourmous resident ash tree, the planting up of a few more shrubs and trees and our border is finally taking shape.

Neatly edged with log roll and ready for the next phase when we re-lay the lawn!

'Armless Gnomes!

I can't say I'm a great fan of Garden Gnomes so this one found amongst the shrubbery made a brief apprearance on facebook before taking up residence in a Warwickshire landfill site!

A week or so later...and look what's lurking in the geranium pot!....A bit prettier than the last.... and due to a plea for amnesty from a friend I decide that maybe I'll keep this one after all!

Apparently one of the first garden gnomes was introduced to the UK by Sir Charles Isham and was called Lampy. This particular gnome still exists and is insured for a million quid! Blimey......and to think I might have thrown out a national treasure!

Gnomes are meant to ward off evil spirits....just as well I kept one of them in view of the sink hole find....who knows what lies beneath??