Are you bored of gardening posts yet?

 All I seem to do is gardening at present, and if I'm not gardening, I'm walking round the garden seeing how things are growing and making mental notes of what needs to be done once we have turfed over the weed patch. There is just so much to do, the garden had been left to fend for itself for over 7 years so no surprises there. I went out for a wander on Friday evening and look who I found rooting around in the undergrowth. I'm now feeling really guilty about digging up his hedgehog restaurant - he's doing such a good job as I rarely find any snails or slugs. Maybe I could get away with buying some Hostas afterall...

I have been marvelling at what is growing in my garden too, especially of the edible variety - I think I'm going to have to grapple with the kids to get a strawberry off this plant!

The gooseberries are looking fabulous. another two or three weeks and I think they will be ready to pick. I'm really desperately hoping there are enough to make some gooseberry curd - doesn't it just sound heavenly? Imagine making a pavlova with whipped cream and some gooseberry curd dolloped on top - yum.

I think we are going to have a bumper crop of raspberries too, as I have managed to chop down all the tree shoots that were blocking the sunlight last year (and preventing us from actually finding these little beauties). Mmm, these would go nicely on a pavlova too.

This morning I decided we needed to tackle the ugly conifers along the back boundary of the garden. So I roped my poor husband in to saw down the lower branches which were encroaching a bit too far into the garden. I forgot to take a before photo, but the below photo was taken a few weeks ago - it's not easy taking a photo of someone on a swing, is it, or is it just me being useless?

 

You can see how close the conifer is to the back frame of the swing, with all the ivy growing underneath.

And here's what it looks like now - we have gained another six feet of garden and yet another giant pile of branches. We have plans to plant a honeysuckle (tortoises love to eat honeysuckle flowers) and a clematis montana, which will both hopefully grow over the conifers and make them look a little more interesting.

I will be back out in the garden this week, continuing the uphill battle of weeding the veg patch. I am half way there so I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm looking forward to watching the kids playing on their swing and slide on the newly turfed area. That thought is what is keeping me going with this project. I am certainly not the most enthusiastic gardener, that's for sure. I hope you all have a fruitful (!) week. x