Flitting

So much to do, where do I start? Well the first task of course is to give Ulysse his daily apple. Nothing quite beats the intelligent look of an animal who knows he is about to get a treat.   He has well and truly suckered me into feeding him an apple a day. He waits just the other side of the fence from my potting shed. Note the Ardeche mountain hill gait. He can stand there perfectly poised for ages waiting for me to appear.

And once that’s done I can get on with work.   I thought it best to plant out all the potted plants first. So in went the two last persicaria bistorta superbas in the east garden. And then these four stipas.   Now they don’t look much now. In fact they are not too different from the weeds around here. But here is my inspiration: this stipa was planted a year ago just a few feet away and it’s thriving.   And more importantly surviving the winter.

I’m still debating whether I ought to move the other stipa gigantea that is hiding in the lilac bed. It is a touch crowded and may prefer the wide ranging space of the courtyard.   Anthropomorphising or what this morning? Must be the unpasteurised cambembert for breakfast.

The main thing is that I don’t plant anything sweetly scented that will attract the wasps. This is our main eating area in the summer and we have a challenge enough with the hornets flying above us and gorging on the grapes.

The euphorbias have come through the winter so well – they are dazzling as you look down the herb garden.   A perfect foil for hiding the compost bins.   I am mulling over whether I ought to plant more in autumn and get a good hedge of these beauties at the end of the potager and where the lawn starts.

But no time for that: I need to get my two other euphorbia polychromas into the bed under the mirabelles. Must take my secateurs. I noticed that the plums are suckering like mad.

These forget me nots suprised me a bit – didn’t expect them to be this twee a colour. I had thought I sowed only blue varieties. Well, good thing they are annuals (or biennials). I’ll think of something more fetching next time. Still, the polychromas look fine.

Here’s hoping that these monardas will look better.   I am planting out an awful lot of flowers in the wall edge of the potager. It’s the extension to the strawberry bed that bends it way around the plot and abuts the staircase.   It’s quite a mixed bag, but that could be fun. The main thing is they will get more attention in the watering over the summer as I will want to water the cabbages and beans and peas nearby.   I am a bit short of bark chip mulch – eek. But no time for that this trip I suspect.

And that was about the sum of my gardening for the day. Instead I had a visit from the plumbers and the builder.

By 4pm I hauled out the mower and did a spot of tidying.   It takes about three hours to do the orchard, the approach to the house, the main lawn, the walnut walk and Alice’s path. And the grass at the parking area at the far eastern edge of the property. I could possibly have done it in less time. But I’m making use of the mulch to put between the potato rows up at the top vegetable plot.

For those of you who have visited this farm you will appreciate the tedium of trudging up with a full grass cuttings wheelbarrow load from the lower reaches all the way up the top. But it will keep down some weeds, and that’s worth the toil.