Hedge Mk2

 

This afternoon I redid the front hedge boundary (to the left), and put cuttings in all the way down the long side of the front (and only) garden (to the right of the photo), and I also shifted a very large stone and planted it at the corner.......... because you know what folk are like for cutting corners, and about four cars go round that corner twice a day and I don't want them taking the cuttings out!

Using the knife-sharpening steel (which is long, strong and slightly pointed) I managed to dib reasonably deep holes by keeping about 3" away from the boundary line i.e. the concrete edging.  I think they stand a fair chance, and if some die I've got the spare ones I put into the flower bed yesterday.

I know that rooting powder would have been a good idea, but I haven't got any because it's in Spain and I can't get to places where they sell the stuff very easily because I haven't got a car.  As for flower pots, they're all in Spain.  I looked on the internet and it says that hardwood Pyracantha cuttings root very easily so we'll see.  I used exactly this method years ago with some summer Jasmine cuttings taken from my Mum's plant and they all survived... so here's hoping.

Pyracantha hedge idea...

For a while now I'd been thinking that I'd like the front garden boundary to be more than just the place where the gravel meets the road, so when I saw that the hedge of a neighbour down the road needed a prune I knocked on the door and asked if I could take some cuttings.

I went to get the cuttings today and came back with plenty of stab wounds and scratches, even though I'd worn gloves.

This is the handle of the spade that I've used to try and make a trench for the cuttings... not a very good tool but it's all I've got apart from a small fork and trowel.  But in any case the ground is so hard and compacted, and very stoney too - probably from all the gravel that's got round the edge of the membrane and been trodden in, that I could only make a 3" deep trench.  Not nearly deep enough.

I'd imagined a neat little hedge going from the garden path on the left over to the parking slabs on the right, but in reality it looks rather silly, especially as there's no room to put more hedge the other side of the parking area.

I've resisted the temptation to pull them all out and think I'll wait and see what happens.  I've also put as many cuttings again into the actual garden, which is a strip to the left of the path, just in case I needed any more...  I don't think I'm going to though!

And more trees!

Quite frosty this morning so I got out with Jasper quite early so that the mud would still be frozen!

There was hardly anyone about, which was good because Jasper isn't the friendliest of dogs - towards other dogs that is - and so I now keep him on the extending lead and rely on other folk to put their dogs on the lead too... if they want, but at least they can't blame me for having an unreliable dog on the loose!  It's a shame but I'm just not prepared to risk it, and at least I can enjoy the walks without worrying that Jasper's going to take exception to every other dog and go for them.

If you're wondering why I've gone back to this old blog when there are no gorse bushes and no pines - well not of that kind anyway, although there's certainly plenty of mud...  I don't know.  It just felt like the best thing to do :-)

Trees

Every time I go to Elvaston Country Park, which is most days, I just have to take a few photos of the trees that line the long walk down to the house gates.  They are so beautiful!

A new post?

Not really.  Not exactly.  But maybe soon.  Have fiddled - oh not again I hear you cry - in readiness for a maybe new post.

Out of the living room window - to the left.

I can't do blogging at the moment

I can't do blogging at the moment, so I'm just going to leave it alone completely until I feel like it.  I'm sure I'll still read all of your blogs, but probably not on a very regular basis.  Happy blogging!

Rain rain rain all night through, and thunder and lightening for most of that time too... apparently, because I didn't hear it at all until a massive crack of thunder woke me at about six.  After that I couldn't get back to sleep because I was worried about Jasper downstairs, as he doesn't like storms at all.  What dog does!

Last night I spoke to my Mum on Skype and although most of our conversation was fine, she finished on a rather depressing note, saying something about the unlikelihood of my finding a job when I get back to the UK.  She may well be right, but she's supposed to be encouraging me! 

Mum also found it hard to understand that the house I'm going to be living in doesn't have a back garden and that therefore I'll have to hang the washing in the front garden...  what!  You can't do that!  This followed on from her realising that I wouldn't have a washing machine until I'd bought one, and would have no car and so where was my nearest supermarket........   The reality of it all is beginning to really sink in now.  And that's not entirely to do with my mother!