Once this was done I sowed two packs of phacelia seed all over the new expanse of bareness. It germinated well and by October it was was knee-high, where it stayed all through the winter. About six weeks ago the first delicate, pale purple flowers began to appear on the now waist-high plants. My intention in planting them was to give a good ground cover through the winter and then dig the whole lot in come the spring. But they are just too pretty to dig in, so I have kept about twelve square feet of them. The scent is not overwhelming but very lovely and the mauve flowers have attracted dozens of bees to our patch. I didn't expect the bees to visit in such big numbers, but on a sunny afternoon it is really relaxing to watch them at work.
I spent most of my Easter holiday clearing a space for a lawn and some vegetables. The grass is growing well now and ready for its first cut, and the runner beans, lettuce and rhubarb look fairly good. I'm looking forward to seeing those bright, scarlet blooms on the beans in a couple of months.
We also have a trampoline-sized hole in the garden, just beyond the new lawn. Steve spent hours digging it out. The trampoline fits inside it well and it means that the children do not have so far to go before they hit the ground if they bounce off it at the wrong angle. But in the long term the hole in the ground will become a pond once the pair of them tire of jumping around on a springy circle.
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Posted By Blogger to kith & kin on 6/07/2014 05:53:00 pm
