This Month

This Month February 2024 - Thursday, 01 Feb 2024

I hope I am getting somewhere with the pruning. I seem to be spending a lot of time doing it and the piles of cut wood are getting larger but the areas finished seem minimal and there is still a lot to do. At least the storms didn’t cause too much damage with just a few small branches down. However one small tree has been leaning more and when we went to lighten the heavy side we decided that it was rocking too much so we took it down totally. Even though it wasn’t big it has still left quite a gap, more noticeable as it used to hang right across the path, now resulting in the view opening up more than I would like. I cannot decide what to put in it’s place to fill that gap.
I do have some other new trees for various areas of the garden, three different white-stemmed Birch, one pink-stemmed Birch and one that has orange and purple stems. I had no idea where to put the orange and purple (Mt Zao Purple) when I got it but have since taken out an apple tree which had some dead branches. I wasn’t going to remove it but one of the things that swayed me was the amount of time taken to prune the apple trees every year and I still have several more.
I have also bought some more small Roses for the new Rose bed, these were all on the sale rail at a nursery, so too was Viburnum odoratissimum Coppertop. Yes, another new Viburnum, if I had the energy I would count how many different ones there are in the garden. I have no idea where to put it but expect I will find a gap somewhere. It is evergreen with coppery-red young foliage which turns green as it ages.
I have been splitting a few small shrubs that have spread by suckers or rooting branches. I moved some Sarcococca to shady areas to fill small gaps and spread the sweet winter aroma around the garden. I have also moved the low spreading Ribes laurifolium which has pendulous bunches of creamy flowers at this time of year. It roots very easily so I moved about a dozen with no obvious difference to the parent plant. These are planted by hedgerows and in places around the Oak circle.
The Snowdrops are looking great now, I was pleased to see my new ones pop up and burst into flower. I was hoping to find time to visit other Snowdrop gardens but I have too much to do to spare the time to gallivant out. The early Daffodils are in flower with more pushing through the earth every day.
I had some new ideas but for sculptures but what they were has slipped out of my mind with all the other jobs that have cropped up unexpectedly. They may come back to me, or they may not.
I am trying to finalise plans for our special garden festival on 16th June in aid of the local hospice. The hospice are going to do the refreshments but I hope to have a stall to sell cakes, pickles and jams so if anyone would like to make some to donate they would be welcome.


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