The laburnum buds have been showing buds for quite a while, but only now have fully broken into flower.
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- Laburnum buds
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- Laburnum in flower
Laburnum flowers
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Whitebeam Leaves
The whitebeam buds have been visible for a while, but only now have finally broken into leaf. It was worth the wait…
Whitebeam leaves
Planting blackcurrant bushes
Somewhat on a whim, we decided to buy a couple of blackcurrant bushes to go in the ‘soft fruit’ area in front of the apple trees.
We decided on two varieties, Big Ben, a relatively new variety with very large berries, and Ben Lomond, a classic variety with good frost resistance and good yields. Hopefully we will get at least a few currants this year.
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- Planting Big Ben
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- Planting Ben Lomond
Oh deer!
We had an unwanted visitor last night which had its way with some of our new apple trees. For some reason it didn’t touch the old apple tree which had rather more leaf and blossom to give – maybe because that tree is much nearer the house.
Fortunately, some of the trees aren’t yet in leaf, so there wasn’t anything to damage, and the deer doesn’t seem to like our whitebeam or damson trees.
It will be a while before we get the back garden fully fenced off, so looks like we will have to get them protected with chicken wire.
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- Evidence
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- Some of the damage
Carpeting!
We had some old carpet which was too damaged to use inside, but it made for a good bit of ground cover!
Garden carpet
Escalonia pruning
Apparently escalonia can cope with a very hard prune, and should come back with fresh new shoots. We decided to test this on one individual escalonia stem, which needed a prune anyway.
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- After the prune
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- What was pruned
Busy Bee
Busy Bee
Rowan leaf emerges
Rowan leaf
Patio preparation
The patio base and a bit more path are now largely complete.
Patio Hard Standing
Tadpoles
Since our pond is only a temporary one, we donated most of the frogspawn to a neighbour with a new pond. However, we left a bit behind, and the first tadpoles have hatched.
They are so small (less than 1cm long) that it’s rather hard to get a good picture…
Tiny tadpole