It’s been a long bank holiday weekend which theoretically means lots of gardening. However, as I have intimated nearly every week for the last couple of months I keep feeling tired. (I should add at this point that I have been to the doctors and had various tests and the doctor says I am just working too hard with too much stress). This morning I thought I was coming down with a cold so we cancelled our planned trip to the local flea market and I read in bed – an unheard of luxury for me. However, the cold symptoms seem to have gone and the general consensus is that I am just plain exhausted and now I don’t have to be anywhere or do anything for the next two weeks my body has said ‘enough – STOP!. The trouble is that I’m not very good at the whole relaxing thing, it doesn’t come naturally to me. As children we were always expected to be doing something, achieving something, time was not to be wasted. I am therefore going to try very hard over the next two weeks to take things slowly – although the effort that will take might counteract the relaxing!!
Yesterday I finished clearing the first part of the Fence Border. The ground is quite dry here and I definitely need to remove some of the overhanging branches from my neighbour’s Pieris as it isn’t helping at all. I love the way the dark fence really exaggerates the color of the rose. I have no idea which rose this is as it was one of the few plants in the garden when we moved in but I think this is the best it has looked, possibly due to having all the clutter removed from around it. Once my eldest has run the electric cable along the fence to the workshop I can get on with the planting here which will focus on foliage. I was pleased to have tackled this as its one of those areas of the garden I don’t really like and ignore.
Another uninspiring photo for the reader but for me it’s another ‘hoorah’ as again this is one of those areas I avoid in the garden. The border is in the front garden and runs along in front of a beech hedge. I widened it back in the Spring and it is planted with Alchemilla mollis and a variety of Bergenias. As anyone who has grown beech will know their roots are quite fibrous and near the surface which makes it hard to really plant near. I have weeded it and although it looks a little bare, due to the Alchemilla being cut back hard, I am very pleased and have decided that the best approach for this border will be to let the Alchemilla spread and fill it out. It seems to like it here and the lime green flowers really work well with the new beech leaves earlier in the year. So that’s two neglected areas tidied for now.
Finally to complete this blog post bereft of wonderful flowers but full of dull photographs here is one of some of the seedlings I have pricked out today. As I said I find it impossible to sit and do nothing so I decided that pricking out and potting up seedlings would be a gentle occupation for an hour or so this afternoon. I recently confessed to my blogging friend, Karen, that whilst I love sowing seeds I am rubbish at looking after the seedlings and I have realised that I am not really cut out to be a nursery-woman. Not only do I have neglected borders, as above, but I have a cold frame of seedlings climbing out of their pots. I am very pleased with the progress I have made – potting up lots of alpines, some Geraniums and Meconopsis. I am determined that by the time I go back to work I will have gone through the cold frames and sorted everything out.
And if you are wondering why there is a photograph of cheesecake at the top of this post it’s because my youngest decided to make one and it was delicious. It is an old family recipe, well he is the third generation to make it, and knowing my mother the recipe is probably from the Jimmy Young cookbook! It is incredibly easy to make and never fails to please. And of course in order to enjoy cheesecake you have to sit down with a drink and that is just what I need to do right now.
