A rustling thicket of sticks

Now that was fun. I seem to have planted a small thicket of sticks.   Andrew gave me a lovely box of his crocosmia’s yesterday, and I have decided to bulk out the area in between the soft fruit orchard.

It’s not a madly exciting space after the fruit has been harvested.   I’ve been adding crocosmias gradually all year.   And now I have the motherlode.

I decided to keep the dry stalks attached to the corms (bulbs?) so that I could see where I was planting.   And it did look comical.   And with the slight breeze, things were rattling away as I moved around the jostaberries and black currants.

My black currant is looking poorly, so I am glad that I have rooted new ones.   I may miss out on a crop next year until they are fully grown, but it will be worth the wait. I have become enamoured with blackcurrant cordial.

I had a little companion to help with planting again. Artur is such a baffling cat. He has ignored me for two days now and suddenly this morning he is gushing and purring and demanding attention.   I suspect it’s because I was working near one of his favourite sun spots. He likes to sit below the black berry bushes on a nice bit of open ground and observe everything I do.

He wouldn’t have wanted to follow me earlier this morning: I had more manure shovelling to do.   Three wheel barrow loads this morning; and it went to a perfect recipient.

The rose planters were gasping for a bit of attention.   I scraped off the large pebbles and smaller river stones.   Took off a layer of parched compost, and then added a large bucket of well rotted horse manure to each rose bush.

I was hesitating whether to add the stones again.   I wonder if the river stones are too heavy for the tulips to push up through the earth in spring.

So I decided just to add a thin layer of the smaller gravel stones instead. It looks much, much neater.

And the rest of the manure went on the terraces of flowers up above the potting shed. And a bit of a top up to the rest of the hedge.

Everywhere I look needs weeding and work. I have so many ideas and schemes whirling about, but just need to get at them one at a time.   So first up was manure, and then a spot of harvesting.

I have to get in a few crops for the next few days. One can’t live on courgettes, marjoram, garlic and chillis alone.