A busy weekend

Having a completely free weekend has meant we’ve been able to clear through a good number of tasks. The horrific Ukrainian situation has made us even more appreciative of what we have, and we’re determined to make the most of it. We’ve managed to finish pruning our apple and pear trees – this weekend was really the last opportunity to do so, as buds are starting to appear on some of them already. We ended up drastically cutting back three of the trees in an attempt to stave off the canker that’s taking over – we’ve no idea if it’ll make a difference but we have to try at least. We made good progress during the week in cutting up the previously-pruned branches for firewood, but the pile has grown again after this weekend’s work! 

One of our original aims was to finish off our first new vegetable bed. We’d hoped to finish upcycling the windows for the cold frame before the weekend (the cold frame will be located in the middle of the bed) and had a couple of late weekday nights painting the outer frame of the windows. Unfortunately the paint didn’t dry quickly enough for us to repair and paint the other side. We still wanted to clear the pile of soil that we’d dug out to put the bed in place, so we’ve ended up piling it high at one end, ready to be moved along the bed once we’ve put the second cold frame wall in place. We’ll do this once the windows are ready to go in, to make sure we make it the right size – aiming for next weekend now… 

Our next job was a consequence of cutting down the undergrowth and the yew tree from around our listed cottage over winter, when we removed a large area suitable for birds to nest in. We also have sparrows that nest inside our shed and inside the eaves of our main farmhouse, and wanted to try and tempt them out. So Sunday afternoon we added three new bird boxes and two sparrow colony boxes to provide alternative homes for the birds. It was a bit nerve-wracking drilling into our stone shed wall as the mortar is so old it just disintegrates with any vibration, so we’re hoping the boxes stay in place until we can get the walls repointed towards the end of the year. 

As spring is on its way, we’ve started to sow our first seeds of the year.  This weekend we added another five trays – this time mostly flower seeds that we got in a sale. It turns out that some of them are edible flowers, so we’re excited to try and use them to decorate cocktails in the summer! We also moved our artichokes in our kitchen garden to a different bed – we didn’t think about how tall they grow, and originally planted them into one of the beds that we cover to protect it from birds, and so last summer the growth of the artichoke flowers was restricted too much. We’ve also split some of the roots up, and are keeping our fingers crossed that they survive. 

And finally – we made the most of a few recent dry days to have our first bonfire of the year! Our pile of branches, dead moss and general non-compostable garden waste had reached over 2m high and was really taking up a lot of space – so it was a real relief to be able to clear most of it. Although we probably should have started the weekend clearing the storm debris from our wooded area instead of leaving it till the end of Sunday, as our new bonfire pile has already started (however much the pup tried to help by taking branches off it to play with!)