Well, it's taken 3 days but I've finally cut the front hedge down to the level of the fence. Usually I do it every year but somehow its escaped for the last 3 years and had got so tall I couldn't reach to trim the top.

Then came the job of disposal. I spent a noisy hour shredding and then mulching. 

While Smudge took absolutely no interest at all. 

A wind and rain lashed garden today. 

Hedge cutting has been postponed until the weather improves a bit.

 It's all a bit damp and depressing out there, even Rogan didn't want to go out.

 The wind is really lashing the bamboo.

1st November

Well it's1st November today and it's so warm I'm sitting in the garden having breakfast thinking about all the jobs that need doing .I haven't been out here much this summer and it's all got a bit more jungleified than even I like.  Since my last post I've lost my faithful friend and helper, Finn but as you can see Rogan is poised to take over. 

Every thing needs drastically cutting back 

So I made a start by attacking the Rosa rugosa, which has jasmine growing through it and swamping it. 

Started making this frame for the jasmine and honeysuckle to climb up when it's sorted. 

 

 Every thing I cut down, I put through my new shredder and spread over the flower beds in the front garden

 That's the fuchsias put to bed for the winter.

And here's the vibernum in full flower and smelling divine as you walk through the front gate. 

Sitting in the garden this morning having my breakfast, somehow it always tastes better outside. What better way to start the day? Finn curled up in the shade under the table one side and Smudge in the sun the other, birds singing and the bees already at work on the aquilegas. 

 Ah the aquilegas, starting to goal over now. I don't seem to have got the best out of them this year, the weather was good just before they started to flower and then it turned wet and windy at just the wrong time and now the sun has come out again they are going to seed.

So I thought I'd take a picture of the different colours before they are finished. 

On a less happy note Ferrero, one of the goldfish, swum under the rainbow bridge a couple of days ago so poor Roche is on his own now although he doesn't seem to be that bothered. 

Finnwas helping me do a bit of weeding in the front garden this morning. 

The perfume around the hyacinths was really strong. 

These daffodils have a delicate scent I wasn't expecting. 

That's one of the things I love about my garden, it always comes up with little surprises. 

The winter flowering pansies are still going strong 

With some spring bulbs in competition. 

I was feeling a bit fed up a week or so ago so I bought myself the brightest, cheapest bunch of flowers I could find. They are still looking good 

and they had about a dozen side shoots which I have sniffed off and put in a glass of water, hopefully they will grow roots and turn into nice young plants. 

Not bad for a couple of quid. 

New beginnings

I was feeling well and truly fed up with looking out of my window at this. I'd already managed to get rid of the pile of trash left from the firewood I was given last year and on Saturday I had bought a magnolia which I have wanted for years so yesterday I decided to tidy up this eyesore and create a new flower bed. 

In the morning I got the bus into Cardigan and bought a bag of ericaceous compost to dig into the ground before planting. It's a good job that the bus stops at the end of the road as 50litres of compost is very heavy to carry! 

After a cup of coffee I started to empty the compost bin and move it to its' new home nearer the house. Uncomposted compost was replaced in the bin and the rest spread over the new bed along with a bag of leaf mould I found lurking behind the bin. The bed was edged with logs and the ericaceous compost dug in where the magnolia was to be planted. 

I transplanted some fuchsias which had been in the same pots for far too long and also last year's spinach which is starting to shoot again. 

I finished at 4 o'clock. Magnolia Susan looks happy in her new home and I hope the fuchsias will be happier here than they were in their pots. A Robin and a dunnock were enjoying themselves scratching round in the fresh soil for insects when I had finished. 

I saw the first butterfly of the year today as well, a red admiral. 

bath time

This little blackbird was enjoying a bath.

 The strange thing was Smudge was watching and the blackbird seemed oblivious.

Spring is springing

There is frogspawn in the bath this morning. I was beginning to wonder whether I was going to get any this year as it has been in the ditch in the fieldat the end of my road for a couple of weeks. 

Ferrero and Roche the goldfish are beginning to be a bit more active now as well although they were a bit camera shy this afternoon. 

The spring bulbs are starting to flower now. The crocus have been out for a few days, closely followed by the hyacinths although some are quicker than others. The first daffodils opened up this morning. 

The helebores are flowering well, I've ordered more so hopefully next year I'll have a carpet of them covering the whole patch outside my front door.
The elephants ears are doing well by the front gate. They should probably be split up soon but they seem so happy there I don't like to disturb them! That seems to be the only place they like.

There's something else that I really must split before long, the day lily. It hasn't been flowering as wellas usual for the last couple of years.

Finn and Smudge were enjoying the sun this afternoon as well. 

My January garden.

Imanaged to get out and do a bit of tidying up in the front garden last week. I noticed that the helebores were starting to come into flower so I did some weeding around them and then put a mulch of compost around them to keep them warm. Then I started to think that the bed was looking a bit bare, all the yellow ones that I divided last year survived but I only have one surviving purple one so a phone call to my favourite garden centre revealed that they had a few cream ones and a few pink ones. Today was a wet,windy, miserable day and so sitting in my kitchen it seemed a good idea to grab a lift from a friend and go shopping. By the time we got to the garden centre it was absolutely pouring down and it didn't seem such a great idea!

However, instead of spending an enjoyable morning browsing through the plants we asked an assistant where they were and made a quick dash to the appointed spot and grabbed the tall one at the back and the small one at the front of the picture. 

 On the way I grabbed this cheerful little witch hazel which I thought would brighten the place up a bit in the dark winter months.

Other things cheering me up are this fuchsia, 

These primulas which I boughta few days ago

The winter flowering pansies I bought at thebeginning of winter.

Brother Cadfael is still flowering! 

I put these primulas round a Holly bush which had layered itself and I put in this pot until I decidewhere it should go permanently. 

And this bush is absolutely covered in blossom. 

So all told perhaps the front garden isn't such a miserable, damp place. 

The back garden however is an entirely different story. .....