Well well well

I'm sure I'm not the only one to notice the onset of wet and windy weather almost immediately it was announced that a hosepipe ban was in operation. However, given that it's the 'wrong type of rain' and that it could suddenly turn warm and dry at any moment, we thought we should do everything possible to reduce our dependence on mains water to keep the garden irrigated. To this end, David has been labouring tirelessly in recent days to complete the installation of 'ye olde village pump' over the water reservoir that used to stand inside the old greenhouse, but which is now outside the new one. This, together with proper guttering, downpipes and water butts, should help considerably with maintaining an ongoing water supply to our plants, free of charge

Additionally, David has reused old crazy paving to form a new path from the grass to the greenhouse door with gravel beds on either side. The intention for these is to provide a good standing area whilst using the pump, and as a 'nursery' area for pots of garden cuttings etc.

When the weather does brighten, which it did beautifully yesterday, the garden is beginning to look rather lush already with two of the large rhododendrons in full flower and acquilegias springing up all over the place. The young leaves of crocosmia positively sparkle with an acid green glow and compliment the euphorbias very well. All the hardy geraniums are leafing up to give, in some cases, rather large green humps all over the flower beds. In the small basement garden they are in danger of overwhelming other plants so a job for the coming weeks is to lift and divide some of the clumps, potting bits on to swell the ranks of plants to sell at the Open Gardens Event.

We've finalised details for the Open Gardens day (1 July - put it in your diary) now so with only about 9 weeks to go there's a lot still to do. Still, we've made a good start and I even cut the grass for the first time yesterday!