Boundaries

Yesterday, along with Peter and Sara, we put in the posts that mark the boundary where we split the hillside when we purchased it from Bob. There are about a dozen of them, all 2.5" posts (5'6" long), driven into the ground along the border. Five in the lower section, and then going up the hill, between the trees, to the stone wall at the top. It went surprisingly well, with Liz holding a ranging post at the 'corner' half way up (the post giving the height to see over the trees), and me at the top sighting down, while Peter and Sara positioned the posts coming up.

We have a slightly larger patch of blackthorn that we realised, having now clambered through it: almost certainly more than we need, so we may cut it back to a thinner, more hedge-like extent, and create space for another couple of fruit trees. Putting in the markers only took us until lunch, so we managed to get some tidying and clearing done, too: some renovation pruning on what we believe to be an unproductive few apples at the bottom of the tree line (if they show no sign of fruiting this year, they'll probably come out), clearing blackthorn and brambles around their bases, and finally clearing the driveway of the rubbish that's been accumulating (mostly firewood and abandoned cement blocks and stones: fairly unattractive). While Liz did some of that, I climbed onto the garage roof, and have repositioned and secured the roof stones that have slipped out of position. The pointing at the ridgeline is in a sorry state, and I'll have to spend a day on that over the summer: not my idea of a fun job, but there you go. The coping stones are all in place, but the pointing between them and the top run of slates is weak, broken, and patchy.

Having got the deciduous trees in two weeks ago, we've now also planted the Scot's Pines, in the spaces we'd marked out. With the holes already dug, planting the 24 trees was a day's work (just!), with most of the time spent cutting the turves from the holes up to be able to refill. The last pine (we bought 25) was intended for the hillside, but the lowest hole is impossible to drain. It lies so low, we'll have to plant a willow there, which won't mind the waterlogged soil. That pine will go somewhere else, but there wasn't a hole dug for it, nor time to make one.

In the fading light (aided by the light in the storm porch), we potted up three peonies that arrived ('Sarah Bernhardt', 'Karl Rosenfeld', and 'Shirley Temple'), and sowed a tray of celeriac; half a tray of kale; half a tray of sprouts; and four modules each of tomatoes, sweet peppers and chilli peppers. The leeks, sprouts and beetroot we sowed last week (but I forgot to mention) have started to germinate: not a high percentage of beetroot, though, so we'll need to sow more.