Cold weather bonus

I never would have thought I would have had this much time to finish the mulching.  First week of April and it’s still cold.

Very little sign of weeds as they are still sulking.

So for once in my gardening year I am ahead of schedule.

The mulch came courtesy of the mighty Dia – a cheap as chips supermarket down in the valley.  Each sack was 50 litres full of chocolatey brown ground cover, and at less than three euros a bag it’s the only garden bargain around.

Dare I admit how many sacks it takes to cover this enormous garden? Twenty one in this potager and ten for the hedge and all the new trees on the top road. One and a half days of work.

And naturally the hedge was not weed free before I laid down the ground cover.

So with Artur assisting, out came the weeds and I had time to get up close and see all the bulbs emerging.  I had forgotten how many I had planted here in the autumn.

And if all goes well, I can leave this part of the garden behind. For a bit.

It feels a bit mad but I couldn’t resist; to celebrate the perfectly mulched beds I planted out the peas and broad beans.

It’s just the first batch I sowed in root trainers last month (or was it February? time flies) but it felt marvellous to get something green in the ground.

All this unrelenting brown can get one down.

Still, it could be worse – it could be snowing.