1st March

I had a bonfire today to burn all the spiky twigs we cut off last weekend. I had to retie the protective green netting at the back as the wind this week had pulled it off. It now has about 50 ties in it so hopefully will hold. It really does get very windy on that back bed.





I planted 30 lily of the valley from T&M and some that came free from a gardeners world offer. The ones from T&M had really long roots and i wasn't sure if they could go in sideways or whether they needed to go straight down. I also wasn't sure if the crowns were meant to still be under the soil or whether I should plant them poking up a bit. In the end most went totally under the soil. I also planted some snowdrops in the green by the Clementius pergola.





The first little blue wood anemone has come up and another snowdrop that was planted as a pip.

The ferns I ordered for the back bed came this week. I've got 3 Asplenium Scolopendrium (hearts tongue), 1 Athyrium filix-femina, 1 Dryopteris affins (Golden Male Fern) and 1 polystichum munitum. The last three should all grow to about 3ft. I don't know how long it will take them to do that though.

The ferns that I planted last October are 3 Buckler Ferns and 2 soft shield ferns. They should all grow to about half a meter high. They are also meant to grow half a meter wide which means I've planted them to close together. I guess I'll worry about that when they've grown a bit.

I've also got a clementis and a honeysuckle to grow up the back fence.

I put quite a lot of home made compost on the back bed but didn't get time to plant the ferns. I'll do that tomorrow. Lots of Daffs have come out now plus 10 tulips (Banja Luka) near the house.

More concrete removal

We've taken up the crazy paving concrete by the house and shed today. So that will give us another big bed. I was going to leave until until next year and make it in to a raised veg bed, but we're having the concrete removed in March - so we might as well have it all taken. Also I wanted to put the tomato grow bags on soil so thought they could go on there. For now I've just put some pots in the soil. I think I'll be able to fork it over and add manure and it will be OK though.

We also put up some green stuff at the end of the garden to protect the plants in the back bed from the wind that comes from the back field. I'm going to plant some ferns in that bed but i didn't order them for today as i thought it might still be frosty. I did plant some of the snowdrops, lily of the valley and the lily bulbs in the bed though as they have arrived over the last couple of weeks. I also put the dogwoods in. I put in 2 lily oriental stargazer and 3 Lily oriental Miss Lucy. The other 3 lily oriental stargazer went in a pot.

The light got to me before I finished planting the snowdrops and lily of the valley though - so I'll have to do those next week. I've left the hellebores in the plant pots for now as well. I don't know whether to keep them in pots or plant them out.

I also had some Alstroemeria tubers that came free with one of the orders. I don't really know what to do with them as I'm not sure what they will look like. So I've just put them into pots for now.

I'm having the landscaping done at the end of March. That is when the new flower beds will get laid out so i don't want to plant anything along the two sides until they've been done.

Everything was quite dry this morning. The soil was cracking it was so dry. So i gave it a water. Then it rained all afternoon!

Lots of daffs have come out in the garden now. But it got dark before i took any pictures today.