Of delight
of interest packed into a small galvanised bucket.
Wanting something a little larger, I ordered a pond-in-a-box. This is a kit which slots together around a frame and contains everything needed to create a patio pond feature. I’m looking forward to buying goldfish and pond plants when I can get out again.
I don’t use weedkillers, so I’m digging out lawn weeds with a sharp knife. I don’t mind daises, but thistles and dandelions need controlling. I also use a weed puller which has three prongs on a long handle. Pushed into the ground and twisted round, it pulls out weeds without much effort. I pop some wildflower seeds into the hole that’s left and next year there may be a tapestry carpet of cowslips, wild thyme and marjoram.
Using my knife, I go round the gravel paths and cracks in the paving and find seedling trees and perennials. There’s silver birch and rowan saplings, and geranium, eryngium and primroses. Potted up they’ll make free plants for my daughter’s new house, which is a blank canvas.
There are strawberries for supper as I have runners from a friend,
The star of the show for flower power and perfume has been the Mexican orange blossom (Choisya ternata), which is grown on the fence on the other side of the pond and has been magnificent.
One negative of spending so much time outside, however, has been my fixation to rid the pond of pondweed. I can report that the population of pondweed is almost wiped out but I’ll continue until either the weed has gone or I fall in!
The patio has had another little changeover with a pot-grown crinodendron replacing the cyclamen, which have now gone for a well-earned rest on the shady staging in the greenhouse; there’ll be a few more change rounds before autumn comes.
Around the garden, the various fruits are performing well; the apple tree looks to have a good set of fruit planted in windowboxes. I’ll use nematodes to combat any vine weevils. There’s a recipe for vegan strawberry cheesecake on my blog. l and the various forms of fig are showing promise, especially the standard. The first strawberries have been picked, well protected and pushed on a little in the greenhouse, which is now looking a little cramped before the tender plants are all moved outside.
On the wildlife front, butterflies have been welcome, but not so welcome was a queen wasp who had started building her nest in a compost bin near the greenhouse door. I found it as I began to empty some compost for potting, and www.greatmagazines.co.uk/gn quickly disposed of the small nest. If she had chosen a quieter spot elsewhere in the garden, then I’d have been more lenient, but the thought of running the gauntlet every time we venture to the greenhouse made the decision to remove it easy.