I too, @Dovefromabove had a decent night's sleep hip/kee pain, crick neck, cold all caught up with me last night - woke at 8.30 although was awake during the night for the proverbial "oui" - and some podcast.
@Lizzie27 and @Ergates Remote areas in Australia and NZ rely on water tanks or bores - we have a good supply of rainfall in NZ but some parts of Australia are very dry. When there's a drought, we can have city water delivered - for a price.
It is March and the last 3 days have been 1: No wind, beautiful sunshine 2: Windy but sunshine and 3 today: Cold, rainy and generally miserable! The seasons are changing from winter to spring!!
Known as Germinal, March is an important month for agriculturers. It is the last month to prune. The work done this month will affect the year's harvest as will the weather.
I hope you are all having a pleasant Sunday. I think it is an afternoon to light the fire!! Yes, the central heating is on ..... but a nice fire in the grate is comforting.
It was a good course @Lizzie27 - all about making wildflower meadows. It confirmed my own experIence that they are very difficult to make. At least I now understand why. However I fear what is needed to succeed may be beyond our abilities and bank balance.
I'm glad you enjoyed the course @chicky. I'm lucky in France, I have a natural meadow. The farmer cuts it yearly for hay for his cows. May last year. There were quite a lot of orchids.
The house painting man has just been. We've been choosing the colour, will stick to cream with greeny grey for the windows and doors. He's going to make a start when the weather is better. That's for OH's Norfolk cottage.
It's 7C and the sky is grey at the moment.
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
Access to a hay baler would be one of our barriers. Plus very well established grassland that needs to be overcome. Widespread application of herbicide is not for me, but ironically seems to be one of the only ways forward. He referred to the breaking eggs/omelette analogy. Apparently his fellow professional meadow makers are tearing their hair out when local councils want a meadow, but are banned from using herbicides- they then know they will create something that will fail in a few years time. It was a very thought provoking day.
Meanwhile we will live with our grassy field - it has many different plant species in it, but doesn’t look very pretty. Until you get up close and personal, and then its teeming with life, and has many tiny little jewels. So alls well really.
I also went to see Wicked Little Letters on Friday - enjoyed it. Great cast. Did you know it was filmed in Arundel? Kept spotting places I know.
Ergates and Lizzie, we live in a country/farming area, so the population is scattered. We had three large water tanks put on our place plus we had a bore put down which is ok for the garden, so we’re ok. Of course, we don’t take long showers or waste house water in any way.
It's been a glorious day and warmed up nicely after the hard frost first thing. I've spent nearly three hours in the garden, weeding, pruning and cutting back perennials which have started to sprout. Will leave some of the others until the weather's more reliable. Tired now though so am enjoying a cuppa.
Sorry @chicky, I thought it was a pruning course, too lazy to read right back! It does sound very interesting but as you say thought provoking. The local community gardening group tried to do a small meadow patch but didn't prepare the ground properly and it's now overrun with dock, amongst other undesirables. The yarrow grew well however.
I like the sound of your colour scheme for OH's cottage @Busy-Lizzie and your meadow looks divine.
@Pat E, somehow I thought your place was nearer a town's facilities. Water tanks and boreholes must be a godsend. I have been thinking of a water tank for garden use here as we have an undercroft in the front of the house, an ideal place to put one. One huge disadvantage is that we've have to knock down the terrace wall to install it so the cost would outweigh the benefit!
Feeling good today. I hacked at the viburnum tinus and cleared it all, it has not performed well recently because of the viburnum beetle as most of the leaves were "lace". The good thing is that now I have a space for new stuff. I am thinking to put down some giant lily bulbs for a quick replace until I know what I want there. Re meadows: I wish I had photos of the fields that I remember as a child.
Posts
@Lizzie27 and @Ergates Remote areas in Australia and NZ rely on water tanks or bores - we have a good supply of rainfall in NZ but some parts of Australia are very dry. When there's a drought, we can have city water delivered - for a price.
It is March and the last 3 days have been 1: No wind, beautiful sunshine 2: Windy but sunshine and 3 today: Cold, rainy and generally miserable! The seasons are changing from winter to spring!!
Known as Germinal, March is an important month for agriculturers. It is the last month to prune. The work done this month will affect the year's harvest as will the weather.
I hope you are all having a pleasant Sunday. I think it is an afternoon to light the fire!!
Yes, the central heating is on ..... but a nice fire in the grate is comforting.
The house painting man has just been. We've been choosing the colour, will stick to cream with greeny grey for the windows and doors. He's going to make a start when the weather is better. That's for OH's Norfolk cottage.
It's 7C and the sky is grey at the moment.
View from the office window this morning
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Access to a hay baler would be one of our barriers. Plus very well established grassland that needs to be overcome. Widespread application of herbicide is not for me, but ironically seems to be one of the only ways forward. He referred to the breaking eggs/omelette analogy. Apparently his fellow professional meadow makers are tearing their hair out when local councils want a meadow, but are banned from using herbicides- they then know they will create something that will fail in a few years time. It was a very thought provoking day.
Meanwhile we will live with our grassy field - it has many different plant species in it, but doesn’t look very pretty. Until you get up close and personal, and then its teeming with life, and has many tiny little jewels. So alls well really.
I also went to see Wicked Little Letters on Friday - enjoyed it. Great cast. Did you know it was filmed in Arundel? Kept spotting places I know.
Tired now though so am enjoying a cuppa.
Sorry @chicky, I thought it was a pruning course, too lazy to read right back! It does sound very interesting but as you say thought provoking. The local community gardening group tried to do a small meadow patch but didn't prepare the ground properly and it's now overrun with dock, amongst other undesirables. The yarrow grew well however.
I like the sound of your colour scheme for OH's cottage @Busy-Lizzie and your meadow looks divine.
@Pat E, somehow I thought your place was nearer a town's facilities. Water tanks and boreholes must be a godsend. I have been thinking of a water tank for garden use here as we have an undercroft in the front of the house, an ideal place to put one. One huge disadvantage is that we've have to knock down the terrace wall to install it so the cost would outweigh the benefit!
Re meadows: I wish I had photos of the fields that I remember as a child.
Luxembourg