First May gardening day...
Gunnera
So this is my first May gardening day - rain, ballet, and family visits have filled up days one and two up very nicely. I have a rather detailed list, which (as usual) I may or may not adhere to. Read on!
May List...
1. Keep on cleaning up the Driveway Border. Why? Because all the little Sycamore tree seedlings need removing, before they turn into a forest. What about the ivy? Not sure.
2. Supervise NGP chain-sawing dead trees behind the pond. Why? Because the gnomes will need protecting (i.e. shifting out of range of falling logs). Clean up and collect the logs for firewood, barrow over to the house.
3. Chop down more Gunnera. Why? Because t'is time, t'is time. Get into the water (cold!) and also trim the roots, clean up as much mess as possible (considering wet feet and legs). This needs to be done ASAP.
Alberic Barbier Roses
Over five hours later...
Yes! I have accomplished much. In the middle of my driveway border clean-up I noticed the ivy climbing up the Crab-Apple tree with gusto. So I made the decision to remove it all. This took ages, and is almost finished. I plan to add soil conditioner and compost etc. to this border, and there's no way I'm feeding ivy.
Alberic Barbier is down...
Also cut down long canes of the rose Alberis Barbier which were climbing the Malus tree. It is, after all, a beautiful stand-alone blossom tree, not a host for thugs that climb and smother. Have made that mistake before, encouraging Clematis montata to climb up a flowering cherry tree.
Then I went bravely into the water race to trim Gunnera. The current was quite strong, and at one stage I did a surprise wobble and almost went under. Oops. I lasted nearly an hour. How tough am I? My legs and feet were too cold to clean up my mess.
NGP did his chain-sawing unsupervised, with one little problem. He shifted the gnomes, but one chap took exception to this and fell heavily on NGP's little toe, which now has a very colourful bruise. Luckily not broken (either the gnome or the toe, hee hee)
A Gathering of Displaced Gnomes
So I actually did stick to my list. Yeay!