The last skip has gone!!! Yay, we have our garden back!!! We have had so many skips that we have lost count. I think this was number 11, could be 13 or 10, but we have had skips on the front garden for 15 months now (since June 2020) and as such it has become a landmark in the village – ‘at the house with the skip turn right’… I am sure everyone in the village is very happy to see the back of this eye sore, I know I am!
I found this rather large hornet inside the house (there are a lot around at the moment) resting on the stair banisters where it scared the shit out of me (I run away screaming from small wasps). It was very tired so I moved it outside and proceeded to offer up everything and anything that it might like to eat/drink including dead flies and rotting wood (I googled what hornets like to eat – lavender is not one of the things btw). The hornet remained there all day but by the morning they had gone. I like to think that they regained their strength and flew away.
Our cuttings from the old grape vine are lying very dormant…
I got super excited thinking this (top) was the old grape vine sprouting, only to be told by Cat that this was in fact a hazel that she had found and planted in here… It looks very similar to the grape vine!
Now the skip has gone Colin can crack on with the lawn.
He is now weeding with the pick, easier than a trowel apparently…
Hoovering up all the weeds with the mower.
Colin has brought more top soil over, another 6 bins worth, this time for the lawn.
The ground is so compacted (the soil is essentially clay here) that new grass seed would have little chance of germinating, so a layer of fresh top soil will help.
Scarifying the lawn with the rake to remove the clover.
There isn’t actually much grass left here, it is mainly clover.
These are all clover tendrils. They are everywhere!
One of the plants that Sophie gave us, aptly named Mars Midget, is flowering already!
Clearing up around where the skip used to reside.
Strengthening the slate edging by adding more soil behind it.
Spreading out the new top soil before scattering over grass seed.
Will keep this well watered and it should start to grow in a few days…