Avocado Update & Other Stuff

At last, spring is here, and with it some warm weather and sunshine.....Yeah!!!

The avocados, although not moving at lightening speed are actually getting bigger. I'm not sure why, maybe it's just an 'avocado' thing, but they take it in turns to have growth spurts, with the one on the right having slowed again for it's brother to catch up. Better repot them soon as well I guess.

Work on the allotment has come to a standstill due totally to the fact that we have a mountain of rubbish to get rid of before we can do anything else, and the organisation responsible for managing the site seem very unresponsive to my demands to get the skips emptied so that allotmenteers can dispose of their rubbish....I can feel a fight looming in the near future on this one!

Work has been really good and productive over the last couple of weeks, with most places getting their spring tidy up in readiness for the summer mayhem about to commence shortly.

Sandwiched in amongst the regular maintenance work is of course several individual jobs, and one from last week was the placement of a large number of stones along the side of a lawn, as people and their inability to avoid parking their cars on the grass has been a major problem at this site.

As arranged, bang on 8am the lorry arrived from the quarry to deliver the stones. Can you believe that I actually had to ask people not to walk under this as it was happening and to instead walk safely through the grounds of the property. A detour of roughly an extra ten yards, and yet 'tutting' and sour faces met with my smiling and cheerful requests! I should have let them take their chances under the rocks.

Let us make no mistake, these brutes were heavy, but after loosing the flesh from my inner arms with all the manhandling, all went into place fairly smoothly........... except these two which were left. So big that I couldn't even move them, the guy who delivered the stones had left immediately after dropping everything off, and so I was alone, with two half ton rocks blocking a busy pavement, and consequently a health and safety nightmare waiting to happen as soon as I turned my back. Slide them off the pallets and with no gap under them would make them impossible to put ropes under for a crane....so I sat on the wall, took all of the jovial quips from the by now numerous passers by, and swigged from my bottle of water whilst trying hard to think of what to do. Finally, pride went by the wayside and I phoned the quarry, who very kindly, and at no extra cost, arranged to send some help my way, no small measure when you think that I was in Christchurch and the quarry is at Worth Matravers in the Purbecks!

And so the rock saga was over, and all was in place, and cars WILL no longer park on the grass!

On another property (and forgive me for the lack of pictures at this moment, but sometimes the moment takes me and I forget to take any), there was some serious reduction of the laurels around the perimeter borders. To get an idea of the scale, these number around 120, are at present at around 25ft, and must be reduced to 5ft, so lots to come off and dispose of.........which brings me conveniently back to Eco Composting again.

As you will have gathered from previous posts, an amazing place, but chocco with potential hazards as there are loads of very big vehicles around. As such, the new policy is that all contractors MUST wear high visibility jackets and hard hats............and this is me........very dapper don't you think?

Heather, who by operating the weighbridge, coordinates absolutely everything. Dumping of all the various types of waste....green waste such as mine, wood, stone, logs, soil, food products, all have to go past her. She keeps a constant line of vans, trailers and more importantly lorries, moving like clockwork. She does occasionally have a holiday, at which time things slow to a painful crawl....the lady deserves a medal.

The last job of the week was at this place in Highcliffe. Somewhere that I have maintained since the start of Four Seasons some 15 years ago. The Prunus cerasifera 'Nigra' is now in full flower and looking glorious. Spiraea 'Goldflame' (sorry Edith, but I love them at this time of year) is doing what it does....flaming.

Anemone blanda is simple and yet stunning.

Another view of the garden.

And finally, in our own garden, the start of something big..............the Sambucus racemose 'Plumosa Aurea' is just starting to burst open.

TTFN