State of the Garden 2 - the May Report

[bunn]

Everything is growing with terrifying speed. I mowed on Saturday, and mowed one of the (small) lawns again on Tues, and still filled the mower hopper thing twice (this is not normal, but I notice that due to last year's extreme neglect I have a lot of very broad-leaved grasses in that lawn, and have lost many of the wildflowers, so I'm going to try and keep on top of it more this year).

I have planted 2 Viticella clematis, Polish Spirit and Mary Rose, one to grow up the apple tree that has recently been freed from huge amounts of shrubbery, and the other to grow up the twisted willow next to it. In theory, these should not put too much strain on the trees as they will be cut back to about a foot tall each year.

I would really like to make the area around those trees into lawn, but I am a bit worried it may be too rough to lawnify itself if I just mow it. I am not sure I can be bothered to dig it all over and flatten it properly though, given that it's sloping, stony and absolutely crammed with tree roots. The easy option would be more shrubs, but that would just put me back where I was, eventually. That middle lawn is the one the hounds zoom on, and I'd quite like to keep the width open for them. I wonder if I could smooth something over the top to create a more even and mowable surface....

We had a burning, and disposed of a great deal of biomass in a most satisfactory manner. I'm thinking I might now move the bonfire location, as it's right in the middle of the upper garden and somewhat dominates the whole area.

The camassias naturalised into the grass of the upper garden are now almost over, but looked great while they were going. Note to self: buy more camassia bulbs.

I haven't yet planted out my birthday shrubs, but I really should get onto that. This evening, if I have time, I plan to clear out the last of the compost from the old heap, and move some of the perilously piled high composting material from the currently-new heap into that composter. I have 2 4-ft square composters, and it's not enough....

The greenhouse still needs clearing and sorting out, but it's been too hot for that. Though the cats seem to enjoy sitting in there, even when it's uncomfortably warm, even outside the glass!


Edit: on considering this matter, I need to buy topsoil and cover the aggly area in that, then sow grass and mow it. Buying topsoil seems to be easy to do online, but buying topsoil online somehow seems like a really weird thing to do. I don't know why.

Comments

[sigisgrim.livejournal.com]

I would really like to make the area around those trees into lawn, but I am a bit worried it may be too rough to lawnify itself if I just mow it.

You could try scattering a thin layer of fine earth over the grass to raise and level it slightly, then wait for the grass to grow through the soil. You'll probably need to do this several times. It is effective, if somewhat protracted; my parents used that method to raise a very low patch of lawn many years ago.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

sadly, the area is not currently grassed at all - it used to have a Giant Shrubbery on top of it, recently removed, so it's now bare soil that is hard as rock and full of tree roots. The grass will come though, it always does!

I've just realised that if I'd planned more carefully, I could have had a load of topsoil dumped on top of it and then just raked it flat, but now I've put in the new beech hedge, anything that goes on there will probably have to be barrowed up the steep slope from the road. Drat.

[sigisgrim.livejournal.com]

barrowed up the steep slope

That's a bugger! Sounds like a helicopter delivery is the only way. ;-)

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

We did have a helicopter land a couple of fields away from us earlier this week - the air ambulance. They probably have other things to do though.

[sigisgrim.livejournal.com]

I was thinking more of a corporate B&Q one (or similar) than a rescue one.

[chainmailmaiden]

:-) I've just updated about our garden. Everything's growing very quickly too, especially the things we don't want, which depresses Bacchus who is a reluctant gardener at the best of times. I think we need to think about getting a second compost heap started, to cope with all the grass cuttings we're getting, it always seems a shame to put them in our brown bin and it's usually full of hedge clippings anyway.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I find 2 heaps are a must: that way you can have one rotting down while the other is building up!

[bunn.livejournal.com]

... of course, to really work, I need to empty the compost from time to time. This is where I have definitely fallen down over the last year!

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

And falling down in compost is something you really don't want to do... ;-P

[chainmailmaiden]

We've not emptied ours yet either. We put it in shortly after we moved in so it'll have been going over 2 1/2 years by now. I didn't empty it last year as it wasn't really full enough and I didn't think any of it would have finished composting propery either. I really should open the flap at the bottom and have a look at some point. Fortunately we have good fertile soil anyway, but I'm sure my plants would appreciate some nice compost :-)