The fountain in the pond this morning
Yesterday I did a
bit of gardening. It seemed high time;
the frogs were getting restless and the birds kept visiting the garden to stake
out claims for the best nesting sites.
Once they arrive I am not allowed in the garden any more, they are
extremely possessive.
The thing in the middle is the Clippings Pile
As you may remember,
last autumn I went crazy with a chain saw (OK, hedge trimmer) and cut back
everything vegetablian that cast shade over my little plot. There was quite a lot of it, and after I had
filled the compost heap to overflowing there were still a lot of prunings
left. So I assembled them all into a
pyramid shape in the back garden, behind the pond, where the Wild Things
live. I fully intended to do something
with the heap, but somehow what with one thing and another nothing got
done.
And now it is gone ...
Then yesterday I
had a quick look at the garden and saw a few little ramsons trying manfully to
struggle through the litter I had piled on top of them, and decided it really
was time I did something.
.....and Molly is back!
First I pulled
out all the large branches and put them aside, then I scooped up the
leaf-litter and smaller branches and cast them upon the now somewhat lower
compost heap (it had spent the winter digesting the previous autumn’s
offerings). I also carefully separated
out the rose branches – they have large nasty thorns and I put them out for the
Men From The Council to collect. I am
afraid to put them in the compost heap, because I suspect even when they have
rotted down their thorns will survive to inflict horrible wounds when I spread
the compost all over the garden. Perhaps
I should stop making compost; my garden is already a foot higher than those of
my neighbours on both sides!
A few little primroses struggling in the leaf-litter .....
The whole task
took two hours, and when I finished it started to rain. Great, I thought, just what the trampled down
little ramsons need! A bit of water and
sunshine and they will grow rampant.
Ah well. I had hardly left the garden when the cats
arrived. Most of my neighbours have
paving or decking or other devices designed to keep cats from powdering their
noses in their gardens, so all the neighbourhood’s cats used to come to mine
for that purpose. The clippings pile in
the area behind the pond had discouraged them, but now that it is gone they all
moved back in.
Witchhazel in blooms!!!!
And if that
wasn’t enough, today it snows! Big
flakes! And it is cold! How are those little ramsons ever going to
grow and flourish and produce the delicious leaves I plan to pick and eat in
May? Between the cat urine and the frost
they haven’t got a chance, you might think.
But ramsons are extremely tough, so who knows …
