The grass is always greener…

… over the septic tank. Isn’t that the saying?   Well on our farm it’s the brambles, the nettles, the hollyhocks, the clematis, and just about any wildflower you care to mention. As long as it is tall, fat and invasive.

If you look at the walls you can see there is a gap between the neat one in front of the house and the bottom end of the pool terrace.   There is about a thirty foot gap.   And a badly placed olive tree.

But we know that one day we really need to replace the tank. It’s badly positioned, too small and quite frankly hard to find.  

We passed the municipal inspection of the tank, but only because we could vaguely point to where it was located, rather than show how well it was doing.

But it is not an urgent project. For now.   But if it does need replacing it would be heartbreaking to have to dismantle and rebuild a long granite well.

The haircut looks quite severe. But it will grow back in no time. Faster than I would want.   But we are having some lovely sessions of rain in between some warm sunny days. So what is good for the vegetable garden has to be good for the weeds as well.

And here are a few random photographs that need posting before they are filed away and forgotten.   I potted up a dozen more oak seedlings. This time I collected them from the lower terraces when I was doing some branch tidying.   They all seem to be alive and mostly thriving.

The just need a few more months in this good compost and the fantastic root trainer pots to get some more growth.

Once they go into the ground on the terrace above the courtyard, life is going to be much tougher indeed.

And speaking of tough. Every year I spot this rather impressive rambling rose creeping through the high weeds in the quince bank above the east garden.

I usually try to strim this bank around now; but I’m always glad I run out of time and forget.   The rambling rose runs for about twenty five feet from the base of an oak tree to the black cherry up above.

Or does it start at the cherry and end at the oak? I’ve never really made time to investigate.   Partly because it is so steep. And partly because I only ever notice it until I am getting in the car to drive away.   I must get to it this summer and have a good look. If I could find the end, I could possibly train it up the cherry tree and make it more of a feature. Rather than just having it lurking in the long grass.