Nice niche
I have found the perfect spot for raising seedlings: in the niche of the living room that faces south. It means I can put them there without worrying they will take a battering. One of the trays is for Nicolas; we are going to visit his chateau on Wednesday. And the rest are for the winter garden.
It has been perfectly sunny here this month. But windy and cold. But perfect weather for stalking about and thinking how to make it pretty. I can’t do any major work just yet. Patience, patience. But I planted twenty Mount Tacoma tulips to the wisteria bed this afternoon (waiting for Bernard to visit) and added fifteen narcissi bulbs- Bridal Crown – as well. It’s amazing how you think you have plenty and the area just swallows them up. I had to add more topsoil to the bed to give them the right depth. It’s rather a rocky bed. And what it really needs is a shrub under the wisteria that won’t get mighty leggy. And won’t be bright yellow as the last one was. Another daphne perhaps?
We also planted 120 snow bunting crocus in the lawn (hah!) near the barbecue. What do we call that garden? The quince garden? The east garden? I tried that trick I have seen on TV. All the little crocus in a bucket and they you just roll them across the lawn in a dramatic gesture of scattering the bulbs in an artistic manner and then plant them where they fell. DidnĂ’t work. The poor tiny bulbs just snagged on the first tussock of grass and fell in a crowded crumpled heap. That will teach me for pretending we have a sward of grass that will accommodate bulbs so easily. Jan laboured at removing all the stones that lie just below the surface. And we then decided to just remove the topsoil altogether. It took ages. But then we planted the bulbs in as random an order as we possibly could and then put soil back over the top. A water with the one hose we have – which is so long that it seems to reach all parts of the garden, but kills your arms lugging it about.
And then the next day used some of the leftover grass seed from Lynn and Jeff and scattered it over the top. But it looks so bitty. Just a tiny patch of crocus in a huge lawn. So I will have to buy hundreds more if it is going to have an effect.