Saturday 2 April 2011

Up the garden path - Sheep, nuthatch, cherry blossom and ebooks.


Hello and it’s a superb Saturday today, with glorious weather. I have been taking it easy in the garden today. Less weeding, and more wandering about picking daffodils. And looking at the cherry blossom. Well, that’s not the only thing to report on the garden front... the hawthorn bushes by the house have come into leaves. 

They are very small at the moment, but are as vibrant green as they will get all year round. One thing people don’t realise is that you can use hawthorn leaves in salad – they taste a little nutty. And I guess people will think you are a little nutty for trying them. But they do taste really nice.

The crab apple tree leaves are bright red at the moment; it is always funny how bright they are – almost like autumn. The crab apple always surprises me, because I always think it should flower before it has leaves – but it never does.

A brief walk shows that bluebell leaves are poking out, thousands of them in a nearby wood. They are not flowering yet. But give them time and they will be very impressive.

I was watching the bird feeder today and saw the first nuthatch for a while. It was feeding upside down. It seems strange to see it again, I didn’t think they were supposed to be in the country at this time of year and haven’t seen them for months. Still I am not a bird expert. So I guess I was wrong.

The Bird Cherry is flowering away, completely covered with blossom, and I can smell grass cuttings. So, it feels a little like we are in the middle of spring. I noticed the daffodils are now all out in flower. That seems early to me. They are supposed to be out at easter holiday, but I don’t think we will have many then. They will have already finished. White anemones are flowering where we planted them a few years back, not a complete success – we had planted a lot more than came up- but the ones we did manage to grow are starting to become thicker bushes. And we still have hopes for really thick clumps. Maybe in a few years.

Our vegetable sowing is a little behind. We have done some, but not as much as normal. Life is busy J
And I have been writing a pretty comprehensive booklet about growing carrots. It should end quite large... and for sale on Kindle for a dollar. I don’t think it will make me rich, but it is worth a try.

In the meantime, we are almost on top of the weeds in a lot of beds, but we still have the flower beds to do, so I guess tomorrow weeding will happen ;)

Have you noticed how much better gardeners world is on TV at the moment? It is almost like it used to be – a normal gardener in his own garden. That’s always quite interesting.

Our three new lambs are doing well, as well... gambling along, without a care in the world. 

Hope you have a good time in the garden... this is the best of times in the garden, not yet too hot, and with birdsong, and new beautiful flowers popping up every two minutes.

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