April Powers

The Lesser Spotted Toad visited the garden this week, but was not interested in the garden whatsoever and certainly wasn't for having any photos for the blog. At 20 years old now, there were better things for him to do during his visit.

Therefore The Man That Can and I have had a very productive Sunday morning, having returned the Toad home to the Midlands once more.  Thankfully the weather was more obliging.

Keeping my shoulder recuperation in mind, I pottered gently about and let The Man That Can do all the heavier and more awkward tasks.

I tied in the new honeysuckle, along with the clematis and the rose 'New Dawn'...

...while the Man That Can set up the trompe l'oeil mirror in what is the shadiest part of the pink bed. The plan is that the fence will eventually be clothed in green and the mirror will appear more like a window into another part of the garden. The idea works as long as it is looked at from an angle to prevent seeing oneself

He tidied all the potting/working area

Under the watchful eye of Angel.

The smallest butt was positioned ready to be connected to the downpipe of the bottom shed. We have to replace the guttering before it will work properly so for now we'll keep the lid off.

The wooden seats have been moved into place to catch some sunshine.

The tall cape fuchsia stems have been cut back hard behind the box hedging, and the huge potted rhododendron given to us last year by our neighbours has been top dressed, given a good drink of water from the butt and mulched with bark.

Since there were a few pavers left over from the new patio, we laid them in the gravel to create a path to the Folly. 

I have a good few ideas rattling around for this gravelled area of the garden. 10 weeks' sick leave can have some benefits, particularly the hours spent on Pinterest!

Finally the pond was given a spruce up, clearing all the sludgy weeds away in preparation for a visit to the water garden centre later this month.

Happy April - I hope it's a warm and sunny one in your patch of the world!