27th April

We spent the afternoon with my wife’s brother and sister-in-law at their place and had a nice relaxing time. The trouble is I’m becoming addicted to gardening. After we had helped set up their trampoline for their 2 girls and our boys to play on, I walked off behind a fir tree and came back saying it was an ideal place to put a compost bin, as my host had recently informed me that he mowed the lawn yesterday and taken the clippings to the tip. ‘Where would I put the compost?’ he asked. I told him that he could use it as a mulch around the base of his hedges (he has no flower border or the like). We then discussed how to clip back the fir trees to give more space, and when asked if I wanted to have his rhododendron as he was building a summer house on the spot, I immediately thought that it was growing well because it was in the area of leaf drop from the fir trees. Fir and pine give off leaves that are acidic and make the soil thus as they rot down – a process that takes even longer than deciduous leaves – and rhododendron need an acidic soil. I declined the offer because such a shrub would be too large in our garden and I want the space for the boys to play. I am addicted though for other reasons. Not content with listening to Gardeners’ Question Time once a week, I listen to my recording of it at least once, sometimes twice. I watch Gardeners’ World now, subscribe to Gardeners’ World magazine, and I have nearly read all of May’s edition already. I think about what I’m growing and how the allotment is going, and what needs to be done in the garden most of the time. The trouble is that in my minds’ imagination, how the garden and the allotment are going to look in mid summer is probably miles away from the reality and I’m concerned that I’m in for a shock of my own making.

 

As you drive along, you can see so many trees that are in bright young leaf. Very quickly the landscape has gone from bare twiggy trees, giving a greyish brown tinge along the roadside, to a vibrant green that tells you ‘spring is here’ and it has come on so quickly. The large oak and beech trees and similar are still bare though so there is the promise for the weeks to come.

 

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