Spring is on the way

I love the garden when it's in full bloom but there comes a moment when plants start to 'go over' and I want to tidy up. My Dad always used to tidy the garden at the 'back end'. My parents' garden was immaculate through Winter. But I've read recently of people talking about waiting until Spring to prune certain plants so that's what I've been doing today. I like returning the garden to a state of neatness and prepping it for the coming season.

In the UK, most local authorities provide a 'green bin' for garden waste. We don't have one as I compost most waste. But I had a lot of pruning today so we had a small fire in the fire pit.

We got rid of our grass early on. After two lawns succumbed to the mud and clay, we decided on a different solution and gravelled the whole garden. Today, I gave the gravel a clean withe the hosepipe and tried to level it out again and give it a bit of a refresh with the rake.

Our garden is primarily a pot garden. We have a small bed along one side of the garden but many of my plants are in pots. Partly because the soil is very clay and it's hard to dig deep. I went through all my pots to see what was still alive, what was sprouting and had survived the winter. It wasn't a great winter for plants as we had a lot of frost and some plants didn't make it. I have some bulbs coming up, lots of lavender which thrived, some honesty, some unidentified plants, and several roses.

I've still got more to do, especially weeding. I'm going to do a bit every day. Little and often. I need to dig over the beds and we'll probably need some more compost and wood chippings.

I'd noticed a hole in the side bed. I thought perhaps Bamber had been there but he usually avoids it. This morning I spotted the culprit! A chunky rat! I spotted him digging a hole. As soon as I opened the door to the garden, he scarpered. We have gabion baskets at the back of the garden which are great but they do make a nice home for rats, mice and other wildlife.