Unwrapping!

I am sick to the back teeth of rain, if anyone turns round in the height of summer and tells us we are having a drought and you can't use your hose pipe I will not believe them, the ground round here is saturated!

It seems to have been a long grey winter, we had sun one day last week and I would have got excited had I been at home, but I was up at mums.

So the weather forecast has threatened sun with temps up to 13C this weekend, so I have washed the bar b que (just in case) and unwrapped the palms.

My Butia, which is the slowest growing in the garden seems to have faired quite well.

I think wrapping it in a duvet in the really coldest period has helped, and its all looking relatively good.

My other Butia looks magnificent

as you can see the fence is still waiting to be repaired, we have the concrete gravel boards and the neighbours actually have had the fence panels in there garden for about 4 weeks now, not sure whats going on.


The Brahea armata  which I always though was relatively tender, seems to sail through winter.

I protected the growth point with a duvet and as you can see a new spear is growing away.

It seems to love the wet winters we have.

Compared to previous years we are well behind, I have my blog to compare, I find it really interesting to look back and see what was happening at this time last year. To save you looking I had already jet washed the patio and decking and it had been dry enough for me to treat the office and the decking!
And we had been having problems with Rats as well.

Back after the weekend to let you know what went on.

Rats!!!!! Again!

We have probably had rats all the time. Living in the country its to be expected.  April last year was when I last blogged about them, but they have been an ongoing problem, getting closer and closer to the house.

My neighbour last saw them walking along the high wall behind our boiler last autumn. I made a concerted effort to seal up and bait all the probable areas they could be nesting. I thought I had succeeded!

Not!!

This is the front of the house, behind and to the right of the window-box and yes that is heading under the house!!

30 years we have lived here and never in that 30 years have they ever been at the front of the house.

We are fortunate to have solid floors and no cavity walls, so that hole has been baited and blocked.

K was over for the weekend and has helped me saw up loads of wood I have had stored behind the greenhouse. As the wood store at the front was getting low we thought we would carry it through and get it stacked! That won't be happening! As we where re-stacking the existing wood I realised that there had been some serious excavation work under the log store, yep the rats have something serious going on under there too. That too has now been baited, but we will need to run the log store down as I may need to get professionals in and the store, as big as it is may have to be moved!!

I really, really dislike rats.

We have no cats in any of the local cottages now, could be a reason why the rats have increased, but all neighbours have been informed about the poison, incase you wondered.

Out and About in the Garden

We had a lovely sunny day yesterday, so I pottered in the garden.

We are still waiting for the fence to be done. Being helpful we bought the concrete gravel boards, as our garden is higher than the neighbours. They have had the fence panels delivered over a week ago. Very sadly for us they have put their house on the market, hence the new fence, I imagine, but whether they will replace the whole length or not I have no idea. From their garden you cannot see the fence at all, so they could very easily get away with only replacing part of it. We will see.

Our first frogs spawn this year. Really late, understandably, because of the weather.

I uncovered the arid bed to see how everything had faired,

Remarkably well I think

I know we have had snow and frost, but I think the worst of the weather has been latterly.

Before Christmas, it was really just wet!

So, removing the cover for the first time since the autumn is always a bit nerve wracking. I think what helps is the deep gravel bed.

Fair bit of colour too.

I then thought it was about time I sewed a few seeds.

Doesn't look much, but each section has different types of seeds. So 15 different ones in each tray. I used to plant huge tray fulls of one type of seed, and ending up with far to many, or the excess ended in the bin! So I am a little bit more frugal, but I have more variety. Win, win.