Walked around the garden yesterday, strewing granular fertilizer. It showered during the night so will not have to water. Today I started a job which has been on my to do list for the last two years. My sister gave me a clump of a miniature Angels Fishing Rods, dierama pulcherimum. When I planted it I did not realize it was full of grass seeds which have steadily taken over the clump. I had to dig up the whole clump and then attempt to separate the bulbils from the grass roots. Now I have to wash each of the bulbils to get rid of any grass seeds before replanting. I have ended up with half a bucket full of very small bulbils, no idea what I am going to do with all of them. They will probably need to grow on for 2 or 3 years before they reach flowering size again. But I do feel good to have finally made a start on such a daunting job. A nightmare to dig up and even more of a nightmare to divide and sort out.
Relieved to find it is still business as usual at the public library. With most of my weekly activities suspended for the foreseeable, I've decided to improve my mind by extensive reading. Brought home Harriet Beecher Stowe "Uncle Tom's Cabin", Thomas Hardy "Jude the Obscure", Arthur Miller "The Crucible", Nikolai Gogol "Dead Souls" and Vera Brittain "Testament of Youth".
Can't be doing with depressing stuff about how people and/or society are mean to each other just because, especially when there's mawkishness to boot. That means no Dickens, no Hardy, no Brontes. Like a bit of subtle but cutting wit like Jane Austen.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
My brother and his wife enjoyed their holiday in Egypt and arrived home safe and well. They were only just in time. Their hotel was the only one in the resort still open, and they were shutting up shop next day.
It's a lovely sunny day, the second dry day in a row, so the mower has seen the light of day for the first time since the autumn. I'm going back after lunch with the shears to tidy the edges, then the remedial work begins: levelling out the bumps and hollows, digging out the perennial weeds and tussocks of coarse grass, and reseeding.
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My sister gave me a clump of a miniature Angels Fishing Rods, dierama pulcherimum. When I planted it I did not realize it was full of grass seeds which have steadily taken over the clump. I had to dig up the whole clump and then attempt to separate the bulbils from the grass roots. Now I have to wash each of the bulbils to get rid of any grass seeds before replanting.
I have ended up with half a bucket full of very small bulbils, no idea what I am going to do with all of them. They will probably need to grow on for 2 or 3 years before they reach flowering size again.
But I do feel good to have finally made a start on such a daunting job. A nightmare to dig up and even more of a nightmare to divide and sort out.
I's tired! But satisfied.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
It's a lovely sunny day, the second dry day in a row, so the mower has seen the light of day for the first time since the autumn. I'm going back after lunch with the shears to tidy the edges, then the remedial work begins: levelling out the bumps and hollows, digging out the perennial weeds and tussocks of coarse grass, and reseeding.