Catching up
After my last post, I started my new job, and the temperature dropped to around freezing and stayed there. I wore thermal underwear to work and left the garden to its own devices. Fortunately, the garden wasn’t in the mood for much in the way of devices. Normally my camellia would have been covered in flowers by now, and would have been for some days, and I would be adoringly taking pictures, but this year the first flower did not appear until 7th April. That’s not to say that the garden is still totally asleep. The pieris is rather good. I saw a bee paying it some attention last week, although I haven’t seen any bees since then.
Pieris waiting for the bees
And hellebores are always good for a long-lasting show.
Hellebore orientalis
Today, at last, the temperature was well above freezing and it wasn’t raining, so it was time to make some more mortar and get some stepping stones embedded. I managed to do three of the log-effect stones in about three hours and I was happy with that. Once again I have covered the newly laid stones with upturned seed trays. It is the only way to stop myself stepping on them.
Stepping stones now nearly finished
There is now one log-effect stone still to do, and six large square ones. I have had a lot of trouble getting someone to quote for laying the six large slabs. The only quote I had was for £180, and he was going to only put four blobs of mortar down – not even five blobs! Maybe I will do the job myself after all. Although I still think it’s a very difficult job to do, I also think I am getting better at it. At least, I could do the slab around the corner that can’t be seen from the house and probably wouldn’t look too bad if I did it. And we have got two bank holidays coming up in May.
However, the most pressing thing now is to get my J Parkers plants into the ground. Now that most of the stepping stones are in place, I should be able to dig holes around them and plant the area up. This is what it’s all about, after all.