A Gardening Weekend.

What a beautiful weekend it has been. The sun shone brilliantly and Sunday brought such warmth I was almost thinking a swim at the beach was in order...almost.
We spent the entire weekend with the two girls in our garden reorganising, making new beds, sowing seeds and replanting. Even a trip to the allotment was squeezed in on Sunday morning. After an early pot of coffee in bed where we gazed at the dazzling yellow of the forsythia outside our window, we packed a picnic and were at the allotment by 8.45am. Dave planted nine blackcurrant bushes - a gift from very lovely friends - and two redcurrants. Another big crown of rhubarb was added to the fruit beds and I transplanted the broad beans which are now about six inches high and making my mouth water at the thought of the feasts to come. More were sown along with peas, carrots, parsnips and a sprinkling of something surprising thanks to Isabella who got carried away. Home again by 11.30 and ready to tackle our own garden. Let me take you on a tour....



This is the little wildlife pond I built quite a few years ago now. It had an enormoush rush which we moved into the duckpond much to the disgust of the ducks who swam around it silently and with deepest suspicion. It has left the butyl liner showing on the smaller pond and so a need to sort this has now arisen and is something I am looking forward to. Soon the delicate water forget-me-nots and water hyacinths will be in bloom giving the water a hazy effect and the dragon and shimmering damselflies will visit. The margins have clumps of different iris, lobelia, spirea and this wonderful marsh marigold which is flowering madly now and lighting up an otherwise shady patch.



We follow the path around the campfire area in front of the pond (which I can't show as the work this weekend has provided the most enormous pile of stuff to be burnt), past the new lawn areas which have sprouted with a vibrant haze and on to the woodland bed - so called because it tend sto get shaded by the huge fruiting cherry tree. I dug everything out of this bed on Saturday, moved the Merryweather damson (I love that name) from where it had outgrown a spot by the writing room and popped it into this one instead. After much replanting of herbaceous plants such as golden rod, ox-eye daisies, a Ballerina rose, bearded iris and clumps of tulips this is how it looked:



and from the other side you can see our very sweet but very tatty house! The paths are lined with bricks I dug out of the garden in the first years I lived here. Gooseberry bushes and another redcurrant were also replanted and I am most pleased with the result.



At the end of the path is Davey's writing room built by his own fair hands. It looks beautiful in the summer, but this is how awful it looked on Sunday (how embarrassing).



I dug out the damson and left the gorgeously tangled old apple tree and a Victoria plum bought for me on Mother's Day by my lovely son Tom when I was expecting Isabella.



It will now be underplanted with grass as I seeded it after much digging and replanted clumps of scarlet tulips to add to it all. Next year we will add daffodils and muscari too. And just in case you wonder how I could have lived in such disgrace, here is a picture to show how lovely it usually looks.



As does the rest of the garden (click on the image for a sunshiney burst of colour)...