Valentine's Weekend

Monday 15 February 2010

Well we can’t be accused of slacking off this weekend, we have gardened like machines, machines I tell you.

The front section of the garden was in a bit of a state, a leaking half filled pond with a pretty miserable looking toad, some weeds, some rather lanky leeks/healthy looking spring onions and some unidentifiable debris. This year I want this section full of flowers and colour, as last year the only colour going on was green. So while many of you were getting flowers, for us, this Valentine’s weekend was to prepare the flower bed.

First things first was to clear the ground of all of the above (apart from Mr Toad who was kept in a safe place). The ground wasn’t too bad to be honest, a little rocky but plenty of relatively fine top soil. There was however no organic matter in there, so with a shovel and possibly the worst wheel-barrow ever made we dug some of the manure from the raised bed and transferred it to the flower bed. Doing so we realised the raised bed needed more top soil so it really was a case of moving dirt round in circles for most of Saturday. I was pleased to use our very cool vintage soil sieve from RE, which ensured any rocks were discarded. 

While most of the nation was romancing their Sunday’s away we decided to visit the garden centre and stock up on “essentials”. A ton of plants were bought including some lupins (probably in my top 5 all time plants), some red hot pokers, verbena, fox gloves and some gladiola bulbs. We also acquired some grit and a pond – well a big trug that will be used as the new pond. Back home we finished preparing the flower bed and planted some of the plants that will survive the cold weather that is lingering on. While re-laying some of the rocks in the bed we found an army of snails under a huge stone, they must have been hibernating for the winter. These lucky chaps are now in a pot ready to be transferred to the park and away from our plants. I am sure there will be more where they came from!