Gardening On The Home Front

Friday, and we have snow......at last!!....Yey!!!

So, instead of donning our work clothes and setting off to Sandbanks in an icy van, we are cosied up in front of the fire at home, enjoying the weather, while listening to Classic FM on the radio. A perfect time for me to blog while Amanda quietly reads. This particular piece by J S Bach is a favourite of mine. We must make a bit of a recce into Poole shortly, as a hospital visit is scheduled for 'C', the roads are snowed up, so that should be interesting.

I did brave the icy wind in my pj's to film this!

A couple of days ago, we managed to get into our own garden and give it a temporary sort out. There was still lots of rubbish from the earlier Acacia pruning, and so a fire was lit, and things disappeared nicely as the afternoon went by. We hadn't been all the way to the end for a couple of months, and had assumed that the Hamamelis 'Diane' had died. We were quite pleasantly surprised to find it not only alive, but in full flower, so that was very nice. Whenever a customer moves away for whatever reason, and our services are no longer required, we always ask if we may take a particular shrub from their garden and plant it in our own, so that we have something to remember our time there. More often than not this is offered, and this Hamamelis was one such plant from about ten years ago.

When we moved here some fifteen years ago, there was hardly any garden as such, and most had been buried underneath six inches of concrete that was then topped with tarmac. I think that a previous owners had been a family of car lovers, and preferred a car lot to a garden. The last remaining shrub from those glory days was this Choisya ternata that had quite frankly become huge, and took up more garden than the pleasure it gave back. Decisions had to made, and so although this is THE worse time to do it, we figured that if it survives we shall keep it trimmed to a more sensible size, and if it doesn't, well, out with the old and in with the new. 

I will let you know if it survives, but I have my doubts!

Things gradually become neater, and masses of stuff was burnt.

A lot of the bare soil does actually have herbaceous perennials in, and it's this side of planting that we aim to increase this year. What surprised me this morning is just how open the garden looks in the photos, and how dense it looks a couple of days later in the snow.

As usual, Hobie being the socialite that he is, makes an appearance and is virtually stalking us both for the afternoon.

And he just loves to hang out by the fire. In fact, he does this to such an extent that when other fires or barbecues are enjoyed while seated, he has his own seat. Note the pile of Choisya prunings/hackings ready for burning, and the stump behind Hobie.

What does Misty do most of the time regardless of any activity? What else, she rests on her throne as any queen would.

Thanks for dropping by!