First crocus

The first few crocuses came up on Sunday. Four little yellow ones in a tub on the patio (concrete).

I planted some more sweetpea seeds yesterday. I was doing it in the dark by the end though as I didn't start until a bit later than planned. The ones i planted in Autumn had been in the greenhouse/coldframe and had gone a bit mouldy on top. I repotted the ones that were OK but threw a few away. Maybe its to cold in there.

The grass is very water logged at the moment. We went and bought some sand to try and make it a little better. It was raining by the time we got back from the garden centre and so we'll have to put it on the grass next weekend.

Concrete path - gone

We've been busy in the garden over the holidays. We've taken up the concrete path that ran along the right hand side. Breaking up the concrete was one thing. Removing it another - and then digging up all the bricks underneath was quite another! But now we have no path. We do have a very big pile of rubble behind the shed.

We had hoped that the shed was sitting on a bomb shelter and that we could get into this and dump all the rubble under the shed. The day after boxing day we tried to break up the concrete where we think the entrance to the bomb shelter is. After quite a lot of drilling (with the pneumatic drill) and chiseling with pick axe we realised we were going to be disappointed and our idea wasn't going to plan. We found a weight from a sash window and some other rubble - it looks like someone might have had the idea of throwing all their rubble under the shed before. Of course maybe its not a bomb shelter at all but a drain or something.

We had managed to make a bit of a mess behind the shed though.

Plus we still needed to do something with all the concrete from the path.

So we decided that we'd pile all the concrete on top of the holes we made and then pore concrete over it and level it off. Then we could put another storage shed there.. or something like that.

So we spent two days moving the concrete and the bricks that were underneath that. The pile is a bit bigger than expected!

Today we picked up more stones and rubble from where the path was and then put manure down for the worms to mix in with the soil. Once we've decided the shape of the new flower bed we'll cut the shape in the grass and then dig over the whole area. The garden at the moment looks a bit like a builders yard though.

Christmas presents

For Christmas I got lots of nice gardening things. I got three books - one from my best friend and two from my mum. I got two lovely big blue pots for my acers from my brother and his family. I got secateurs from my husband and a hose and a strawberry/herb planter from my mum and dad.

When we got back to London my dad had planned to take me to a garden center but most were shut. We went to Homebase in the end and I bought myself some loppers and some more compost to plant the acer.