Ravendale House

Yesterday we bought our seed potatoes and onion sets. This is an annual ritual which for me represents the start of the gardening year.

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What could be nicer on a warm summers day than English strawberries picked straight from the garden served with ice-cream? What could be more evocative of those long summer days of picture-book childhood, when life was lived at an easier pace?

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It’s commonly said that a weed is simply a plant that is growing in the wrong place. Whilst this is true to a certain extent, I feel there are a few exceptions which should be classified as weeds all the time. Here in ascending order of loathing are my top five weeds.

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When we moved here 10 years or so ago, the hedges which surround our 3/4 acre plot, were about 6 feet high. You could easily add another 2 feet on to that for the growth they made each summer, which meant that by August they were untidy and very oppressive. Being so high they were a real pain to trim and although they offered good protection from the wind they did cut out a lot of light from both flower and vegetable gardens.

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It’s always a good feeling when the first snowdrops appear. There’s been one brave little soldier flowering on his own by our backdoor for several days now. I don’t quite know how he came to be there all on his own but there he is.

I noticed today that the big clump at the back of the house have appeared, so that’s a good sign, though I often wish they were in a place where we could see them more easily from indoors.

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At last, a nice day and I can actually do some proper gardening. I haven’t been able to do that since way before Xmas.

January is a funny time of year really, too early to do some things, too cold and wet to do others, so I decided the best thing was to do some digging. Apart from anything else I need the exercise after all these weeks of inactivity.

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