After all the bad weather they’ve had here whilst we’ve been sunning ourselves yesterday it was a lovely early spring day. The sun shone all day so even though it was only about 5′ it felt a lot warmer. My OH and I spent several hours in the garden clearing the old chicken run.

Our chickens went to pastures new in the autumn and the area needed clearing of rubbish, the old rotten compost heaps needed removing and the gorgeous compost moved elsewhere. I dug up lots of bindweed roots, which is always satisfying, though I know there’s some I couldn’t get at so it will have to be weed-killered when it starts to sprout!

We’re getting some new compost heaps and then I’ll be planting up a deep border with shrubs and climbers. My original plan was to grow clematis up the old fence posts, my OH felt that once we started taking the gate off they would all come down…after battling with said gate with claw hammer, jemmy, sledge hammer for far too long the gate and post eventually came out and he decided my idea of growing clematis up the other six posts was a good one!!

Plants are just starting to emerge in the garden, these bulbs are some I forgot to plant for a year, so I’m amazed they’ve come up!

We’ve lots of daffodils in flower, adding a splash of colour. I particularly like these miniature ones, they’re only about 6″ tall, they’re very dainty but they seem to stand up to inclement weather better than the taller ones.

Underneath a rhododendron the pulmonaria are just coming into flower, they’re a very pretty pinky blue. Their traditional name is lungwort as they were thought to treat lung problems, mainly because it was thought their leaves looked vaguely lung-like!

I’ve two or three osmanthus in the garden, their leaves are like holly but they have a much more bushy habit, I find them very good for flower arranging at Christmas! They are a useful small shrub in the garden, neat and tidy, no major care, good evergreen interest. This is the golden variegated one, I’ve another that’s edged with cream and a plain green one in the front garden!..if you have heavy clay soil like mine and you find a plant that likes it, you buy it in all colours 🙂

I’m hoping this week to finish tidying the pond area, before the snow arrives again just in time for Easter!!