More from the Garden

A couple of pictures of the ornamental cherry (we think) in the back garden, which is the first thing to get blossom on it this year, starting about a week back. The plum tree will soon be looking similar, I guess, there's lots of good new growth on the blackberry and the loganberry and we must plant our new morello cherry soon: it's got lots of buds on it too. Here's some more of the blossom - along with all the greenery springing up and the sunny weather this weekend, it lifts the spirits.



We've also been trying to organise the areas round the side of the house, including a more organised area for the compost bins and the back of the greenhouse, now home to a new little annexe for hardening off seedlings:



We're trying to re-use as much as possible, using flags and bricks to make areas of hard standing (today I laid a couple of big flags down level for the tumbler composter, about where the wheelbarrow is in the previous pic).

There's plenty to use, not least all the bricks we've dug out of the ground. There used to be a big house here which was demolished in the 1970s or early 80s to make way for new houses - and most of it seems to be still in the ground. The other big task for round the side of the house is to lay a new hard-wearing lawn for the lads to play on - we'll see how that goes because clearing the area has been hard work. Here's what it looked like about a week back. After a bit more raking and stone-removing, we sowed the grass seed today:



Previously all that area was a thicket of overgrown shrubs, many of them wielding vicious thorns at exposed parts, that needed to be moved if possible and cleared if not. And then there was the rubble, bricks, blocks and assorted detritus of what was here before. To round up a series of none-too-inspiring pics, here's a snap of *some* of the stuff that's come up out of the ground in the process of digging down about 6 to 9 inches.



It's enough to make you want a beer or two. Two weeks to wait now for the current one to mature (it tastes great already); and then brewing again on Monday, this time to my own recipe, the first one I've tried to work out myself. Busy times!