Vegetables Planted

Tuesday's tree felling went well. The driveway pine is down, the poplars along the road are shorn (the trunks are still standing about 3m tall), and the pines on the far side of the games lawn are down. Most of the wood still needs cutting into rings, and the trunks need dropping, but they'll pop in next week to finish that. The thinner branches and twigs have all gone through the chipper, and we now have a heap (about 6m³, at a guess) of mulch.

The view across the games lawn is much better, now: the side of the little stand was bare, where a tree had previously been felled. That's the big disadvantage of conifers, really—once they're bare, they stay bare. The borrowed view out of the garden and into the valley is good, and the birches in the field beyond break the view of the neighbours' house.

Losing the pine on the driveway has opened up the track from the front garden, and from the kitchen window; and lightened that corner of the garden. It's also functionally been necessary to remove the tree: the driveway is now more accessible, and it was only a matter of time before the track was encroached by the tree. Finally, the retaining wall under the tree is bowing, and cracking—the expanding roots of the fir have caused it to bulge rather. I'll have to repoint, but I think rebuilding it would be more work than I fancy.

Yesterday and this afternoon have been spent, predictably, splitting, sawing and stacking firewood! However, this morning we had a pleasant session in the kitchen garden, planting things out. The onions and early potatoes were already in, and some rows of radishes (Zlata, and French Breakfast), parsnips (Tender & True), and carrots (Autumn King, and Amsterdam Forcing); we've now added some more carrot rows, and planted out the beetroot. They were about 60 of each of Cylindra and Boltardy.

The over-wintered alliums are all looking good. More onions survived than I thought would—probably because it's been a particularly mild winter, admittedly—and the garlics are looking strong. The elephant garlic are definitely large!

I didn't mention: the damage to the fruit cages was repaired last Friday, with polypropylene cord and a bit of weaving. Not as bad as I feared: some of the wires need tensioning, though.

Lastly: the front garden is looking good, and photo-worthy! The red tulips (praestans; red, in pots in background below) are out, and the daffodils continue; the Pinocchio tulips (bicolour, in foreground below) are almost over. The hellebores are still flowering, and the acer is coming into leaf. The pine and poplar in the background are the ones that were felled on Tuesday.

Front garden (© Ian 2012)