A week in the garden….

It’s been a very busy week in the garden with the pool man coming to summerise the swimming pool (which resulted in quite some time spent vacuuming up all the dust and dirt deposited during the winter), a major weeding effort on the first of the veg beds in readiness for spring seed sowing as well as grubbing out and replanting / seeding some of the herb tubs.

We made a visit to a couple of local garden centres in Thorpe and nearby Salhouse to buy plants and compost for hanging baskets (some of which have already gone up as they are south facing and well sheltered at night), as well as seeds and a new trough which now hangs on the wall outside the Old Coach House. This year the various baskets are planted with four different varieties of fuschia, three varieties of begonia, nemesia, trailing verbena, lobelia and brachysome. They should all be lovely and colourful when the buds open.

The veg plots will be planted up with two varieties of courgette, one green and one yellow, broad, runner and French beans, salad leaves and radish, chard, beetroot, small Chantenay carrots and squash and we also have tomatoes and chillis in the Conservatory benefitting from the current spell of glorious weather.

The big job of pressure washing all the terracing is still underway but both the south terrace and the pool terrace have been completed, with just the Coach House and Dowager’s Cottage pathways yet to do.

The birds are both busy and noisy but very tuneful and the dawn chorus gets earlier by the day. We have pairs of greenfinch, chaffinch, robin, blackbird and dunnock as well as great, blue and coal tits. The long-tailed tits seem to have disappeared over the last couple of weeks but maybe we just haven’t been looking, or listening, at the right time! A pair of goldfinches has been spotted regularly at our feeder but we have yet to see them with nesting material in the garden and our wrens are also flitting about. The birds are certainly all hungry as we are having to fill the feeders frequently and a local family of jackdaws, together with a pair of collared doves and some of the local wood pigeons are making the most of the left over bread and toast from breakfast which we have been putting out for them.

Our magnificent magnolia has finished flowering for this year but the clematis montana is in full bloom as is the camellia. The irises have huge buds on them and the tulips are very colourful at the moment.

The weather forecast is excellent for the Easter weekend, dry and warm, and we do have limited last minute availability so give us a call on 01603 700772 or book online at www.oldrectorynorwich.com/book-online. See you soon.