And yet another.

The other day, neighbour Lynn brought us a couple of dollops of her acanthus, which will add some architecture to the top bed: she went away with a dozen or so tagetes.  As I so often say, one of the joys of gardening is the sharing of seedlings, cuttings and divisions.  The remaining tagetes are planted out in a rather weed-infested bed next to the cold frame.  It won’t be long before the honeysuckle, ivy and cotoneaster reassert themselves, I suppose, but we might get a splash of colour as well.  Talking of weeds, yesterday I took two garden buckets of weeds (mostly hairy bittercress) out of the bed under the surviving leylandii, and am wondering what to cover the ground with.  Lungwort, maybe.  Or that thug of a woodland geranium. 

The pots previously occupied by the tagetes are already re-used: a consignment of fuchsias arrived from Parkers this morning: they are now potted up and in the top of the greenhouse to harden off and grow on.

In the herbs department, the new raised bed is now full: I’ve added a row each of sage and tarragon.  That left a whole lot more seedlings to pot up, so I fancy we may have a plant sale later this year.  I've found homes for about four dozen rudbeckias, including the ones I hadn’t got round to potting up, but there are dozens more to plant out!  We still have a lot still in the ground from previous years, undeterred by April’s cold snap.

Grateful that the gales of the last couple of days have subsided.  Although I heard a clap of thunder this morning, we haven’t had thundery rain or hail showers today (as I write, having thus tempted fate, I see a very dark sky moving in from the west...).  I won’t need to water today’s plantings out.  The seasons really are all to cock this year, aren’t they?

The builder was back the other day with a fellow to measure up for the window of the future downstairs study.  The fact that he’s coming back on Monday with another window man suggests that he didn’t like the estimate.  Mr Disgustedville Buildings Regs has served Martyn with a list of stages that he’ll want to inspect.  That might start to justify his exorbitant fee.  Incidentally, a neighbour stopped a couple of weeks ago to ask Martyn about the planning consent notice that the council had posted in our front garden.  She and her husband had a garage conversion done under the assumption that such work didn’t need planning permission.  We see no evidence of a planning application by our nearby screaming banshee, who has also had a garage converted.  It is, of course, an aberration that Disgustedville Council requires consent for such work, which elsewhere comes under the Permitted Development rules, but we wonder how many other neighbours are expecting contravention notices!  I’ll be glad when the job’s done and dusted.  Currently estimated for the end of July.  Watch this space.