Dig, Dig, Dig

A mixed bag of weather this week, sun, hailstones, rain and snow. I have been keeping on top of my gardens. I applied a generous stack of muck to my Autumn raspberries, blackcurrants and gooseberries. I have put cardboard under the gooseberry bushes to prevent gooseberry sawfly.

Autumn raspberries are cut back each year

Gooseberry and blackcurrant flowers are forming

Our beech hedge is coming into leaf.

When all the new leaves cover the hedge the dead leaves are shed

The farmers are busy rolling the grass and ploughing fields. The lambs are growing but are still young enough to gamble at dusk. I heard  the cry of three oyster catchers when I walked along the river in the evening. Candy my dog has gone back to the kennels she came from. 

Very smart

The gorse is a vibrant yellow along the lanes.

Acid yellow

Dandelions rule OK.

Dandelions are sun lovers and the flowers are also edible

The gentle Welsh poppies remind me of my friend.

Paper thin petals

I am making a series of door wreaths using flowers in season.

Ivy, blossom and daisies 

These are some of the flower arrangements I did for the Easter display at church.

For the entrance to the Haydock Centre

For the entrance porch

I have been weeding my allotment, extending the vegetable beds. I have made excellent progress with some very long days of digging. The soil is rock hard. I hope to finish by next week. Many of my vegetable plants in the greenhouse are ready to plant out, broad beans and kale and sweetcorn. I have planted some flower seeds today and the greenhouse is almost full. 

Hi ho, hi ho it's off to dig I go

I have redesigned my bees that feature in all my gardens and on my allotment.

New this year are wire wings

This is a sock monkey I made for my granddaughter.

Cheeky

Bee Happy

April showers bring forth May flowers, how true that is.This past week we have had radiant sunshine, small and large hailstones and snow on the Pennines all within one day! There have been several hot days and for the first time this week I wore only a T shirt to garden in, it was wonderful to feel the warmth of the sun. 

All seeds in the greenhouse are all starting to germinate and I am watering them every day. They are all too small to plant out except the tomatoes that  will need to be re potted this coming week.

My greenhouse

The birds are singing from dawn to dusk and the coir liner from my hanging basket seems good for nest building.

The Harper bird unique to the Eden Valley

The recent  news about the shortage of bees has not affected the Artful Garden where there are many rare bee species.

Blue Wanabee 

I love forgetmenots and  the way their colour fades from blue to pink. I have rivers of them in my garden. 

Forgetmenots

Yesterday I noticed that the pear and damson blossom is just beginning to come into flower. Last night was a heavy frost so I do hope the blossom will have chance to set so that we get some fruit this year. Last year there were very few plums or pears.
My beech hedge had come into leaf and this is 2 - 3 weeks later than normal.
The expression coming out of a hedge backwards definitely applied to me, as I grovelled under the low hedge branches at ground level, to retrieve leaves from the back of the hedge. 
I have finished my marathon clearing of the big border that backs onto the hedge. I had to clear some stone piles from previous bed clearances and managed to fill 12 compost bags of weeds, ground elder, ivy and nettles. There was a good feeling of satisfaction when I had finished the final raking of the bed. The bed is now ready for all the plants I am growing. 

I went on a bike ride in Keider Forest in Northumberland and found some frog spawn in a gully along the cycle track, another sign of Spring. 

Frog spawn

I found this stone near the frogspawn, nature can form some lovely patterns. 

What has made these patterns?

In the forest were several fallen trees with the roots exposed.

Can you see the shape of a pelican in the root system?