I hope I am not boring you with all this gardening but I have to take advantage of the good weather whilst I can even if I feel I will never straighten up again and my gardening boots are welded to my feet.
Talking of feet, what was I thinking – to come on holiday and not bring some cool open sandals? Trainers and Sketchers are a bit warm this weather and my feet feel two sizes bigger – nothing to it but to plunge them into a bath of cool water. I suppose with the sea only a few yards away I could go and have a paddle this evening but I think the thought of dodging the midges out there puts me off. I will stick to a bowl of water.
It is unlike me not to be in the mood for gardening but today I did feel a bit ‘off’ but I think that is more to do with the weather being so unusually hot for days on end and having to continually move about the garden with the shade and not really getting any border fully completed.
Frustrating.
I finally settled for sorting out under the apple tree and clear around the base. The gardening books all tell me that apples do best when the ground around the trees are kept free of grass and weeds. The grass doesn’t grow there anyway (far too shady for it to be bothered) but obviously the weeds don’t read the same books and will insist on gathering around the trunk on mass!
After spending the morning crawling around underneath this and the adjacent Corkscrew Hazel I have cleared the spot once again and will spread some manure around in the hope it will help preserve some moisture and feed the tree at the same time. This dry weather might make all the apples fall off while still tiny – fingers crossed they stay on the tree long enough to swell and ripen.
Of course the apple tree should have received a hefty pruning last winter to cut it down to a more manageable size but if you remember the visit when this was planned the country was taken over by the Beast from the East and we retreated to the warmth of the caravan all week.
Apple tree therefore did not get a good ‘going over’ and as a consequence is now another four feet higher. Not sure why anyone would want to plant a half standard apple tree that grows up to 5 metres in height and doesn’t own a cherry picker. Needless to say we inherited this tree with the garden but it does produce the most wonderful Bramley’s – but only at the top of the tree!
We went into town after lunch as we had to do another tip run with all the bags of weeds that I have generated – they accumulate quickly and filled the trailer. I also had a shopping list that went something like this:-
- 1 large bag Compost
- 3 bags Farmyard Manure
- 3 bales Bark chippings
- 2 pints milk
The milk being for us of course!
I would normally make my own chippings by shredding the pruned branches but there just isn’t time on this visit. So nothing for it we decided to buy some – it would be worth the money at the moment to keep on top of the bits of garden we have cleared.
There is not a lot of choice up here and the prices are more expensive than at home – there are no chain stores like B&Q only independently owned shops. We did manage to find some 3 for 2 on both the manure and bark at the local garden centre which is easy parking when you have a trailer on the back and they do a good cup of tea and the most deliciously moist fruit loaf sliced and buttered.
Bobtail bunny is bobbing around the garden tonight – his curiosity is leading him to investigate our pile of bonfire prunings. A good job it is too hot to light it or one more ‘bob’ and he would be a roast bunny.
Back soon x
where the journey takes me 2 
Several of your recent visits to Scotland seem to have been tied to ugly weather systems! First Beast from the East and now a heat wave. I can see why you are frustrated. Is there any way to tie a fly (e.g. sheet, tarp, covering) over an area you want to work to keep you out of the sun for a time, but allow you to work in areas of concern? I am guessing you would be in a sweat just trying to put one up, so maybe not that helpful. We have a thing called an EZup canopy over here that can provide movable temporary shade, but then how often do you get a heat wave in Scotland?? Hope you are feeling better and less frustrated today.
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Thank you Mary you always come up with really good ideas. We used our large parasol at home when I volunteered to sort out my daughters garden but even then the heat under that became just too much.
We have things here called Gazebos like an open sided tent – people buy them for barbeques because normally in England you cannot guarantee the weather. Maybe we will think about getting one. The shade from the trees works better as it is cooler air under the trees but it is not as you know always where I want to garden.
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Trips to the tip sound all to familiar, one of the delights of rescuing a neglected garden.
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Ours used to be a 45 mile round trip – lucky for us they moved the site into the business park in town so only a 30 mile round trip now! We compost more than we bag up too but just cannot cope with the amounts as we are in a mild area everything grows so big.
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