Down to the chippie

Now how exciting is this? A pile of chipped branches. Bet you just yearn for the day when I can actually take photograph of flowers and other frilly things. But this is winter and it’s the hard landscaping season. And posts of worthy garden areas are what you get.

And believe me, when you have spent the day dragging the branches from the far end of the property (they always fall out of the wheelbarrow on the slopes), dumping them in a heap near the house. Wheeling out the mighty Viking, and then spending a din-filled hour creating mulch you have to feel a teensy bit proud.

Their final destination is the shade garden (another ponderous walk) and hopefully will suppress the millions of weeds that will compete with my paltry flowers under the chestnut and mirabelle trees. This shot looks suspiciously like one that you will see later down the page. You can see how proud I must be of this achievement to make you see it twice.

Another little project was to create a proper compost bin up near the potting shed for future weeds and plant matter. This one is hopefully going to be disguised under a mountain of chestnut leaves later in the year. And it is below the wall, so out of sight when you turn the corner of the garden and see the shed. It looks frightfully woodland and twee right now. Learning how to weave chestnut saplings is playful believe me.

And to finish here is a shocking bit of green. This will break up the wood chip monotony. My sweet peas have germinated and are fighting to get out of their root trainers. Let’s hope the peas (purple podded if you please) will emulate them when we finally have some spring.

Gad I feel virtuous; I am up to date. Off to the other side of the world for a fortnight, where I promise to fret about the plants back in the shed.