A rather peculiar spring

Thank goodness for the garden.  Although our movements are less restricted than our French neighbours’, we are doing a lot of staying at home, and the garden does give us fresh air.  Most of my trips out - German, art etc - have been suspended, and so are the court days I’d have had if I hadn’t decided to retire early.  There is a huge amount to do in the garden, so I’m getting on with that a little at a time as weather permits.  The high winds of recent days make gardening rather less than pleasant, however, so after a burst of potting up earlier in the week, grass cutting has been about my limit the last couple of days.  It got its second cut yesterday, one click lower this time, and although some bits are rather bare and/or boggy, it’s looking a touch more presentable.  The real success story in the garden is the batch of polyanthus I got the winter before last from Sutton’s.  They have been flowering for months, and provide a fine splash of colour.  That could have a bit to do with the vast quantities of grit and fertiliser we got Ben and his mate to dig into the new bed when they’d lifted the turf.  

We plan to use the raised beds for runner beans again this year, so I’ve made a start on clearing it out. I’d planted out some miniature roses in it - the sort you get as a present, four to a pot.  They did very well out there last year, so I’ve moved them to the front to replace some pathetic sarcococca (sweet box) put in by the soi-disant  landscapers.  Not hard to see why they languished: they had just dug a hole in the clay and plonked the pot contents in, making no attempt to improve the soil first.  Well, I’ve quarried out a garden bucket of sticky clay (I could barely lift it!) and heaved in some muck and compost along with some of the soil from the turf pile before replanting the roses.  We’ll see how they do, but so far they look OK.  We have another pot of mini roses to plant out, so more sweet box will be heading for the compost shortly.  

The sitooterie is warm now from mid-morning on decent days, so I expect I’ll be out there pricking out seedlings this coming week.  

An incidental result of cancelled engagements is that I have less opportunity to go shopping ad hoc.  We did a week’s worth last Monday, and haven’t been out by car since.  So, one way and another, we’re minimising the infection risk.  It does mean that we’re starting to get a bit stir crazy, but it has to be worth it.