Working outside

It was beautiful weather while we were in France, so we decided to take advantage!

For me that meant a "spot" of weeding, and David was very kind and let himself be persuaded into joining in...

He would much rather have started chopping down trees/scrub, I'm sure, but the speedwell is starting to flower [and therefore would be spreading seeds in a week or two], whereas the more rufty-tufty stuff can definitely wait!

We spent about four hours on each Saturday and Sunday [before leaving to come back to London], and apart from a very few weeds that we up by the fence against the road I think we've covered the whole garden!

I ended up cutting the elder bushes back to about 2-3' - we want our view back, and it made weeding under them so much easier!

I think the twigs laying around has confirmed the decision to buy a shredder!

I know it's too soon to have cut the perennials back, but some things were starting to grow, and I just needed to gain a sense that I have control over something.

It's a risk I'm willing to take - frost might cut some plants down, but it made weeding so much simpler, and it looks much tidier.

We had a look in the pré for some seedlings from the little red plum tree - it's looking pretty precarious, and given the fate of the other plum that tumbled in last winter's winds, we want to transplant a "successor" before it's too late!

We found a couple of sprigs that we are fairly sure will be from the right tree [there are loads round where the other tree fell], and David transplanted them to by the fence/hedge.

He also move a couple of (what I think are) lizard orchids. I'm not sure we're doing the right thing, but he took a huge ball of soil with them, so hopefully enough of the commensal rhizome [or whatever it is] that the orchid needs will go with it.

The hay cutting stops the orchid from seeding, and if we could save a couple of plants it will be worth it.

We're desperately hoping that the French equivalent of "credit crunch" will put a stop to all the verge tidying that seems to have become epidemic in the last few years; it all looks very tidy, but stops all the wildflowers from setting their seed and we see a fraction of the varieties we did four or five years ago.

Another "fingers crossed" occasion [for my lizard orchids and the Department's verges].