August

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This is a first entry, half way through August, 2008.

I live in Saffron Walden in N Essex close to Cambridge. The soil is chalk clay with flints to add that extra bonus to digging. This year has been very wet so if you brave the weather it hasn’t been too bad. There have been some nice days too, so the vegetables have done okay.

It has so far been a great year for the garden, which means you will see some photos appearing on the page very soon. We, meaning myself and Ellie have spent the last four years trying to get the garden in shape. It was a little neglected for many years, the bottom end was a riot of stinging nettles and weeds and long grass. We have left some areas completely untouched or just added a few extra wild plants like teasel and evening primrose. I better add that Ellie deserves the major credit for the garden maintenance this year. Her ‘pottering-about’ has kept it together.

The pond has matured this year; bulrushes, irises, water-forget-me-not, water lilies have all played host to frogs,toads and some newts. Which isn’t bad for a 6’ by 2’ plastic linered pond. It has a log bridge for the two cats and is surrounded by grasses and a Salix Contorta (Willow).

The second year of vegetables started on a low when the Runner beans were planted and hit by a night frost in May. The second sowing have done well to make up for it. We put in some sweet peas to make it look even more of a show. 200 onions have been reaped from an 8’ by 8’ raised bed. So tthat’s been good too.

The big disappointment have been the clematis which have all either wilted or have barely flowered. Many different varieties. They are okay in pots but in the garden they always seem to flounder

But all in all it has been really fun just watching it all happen. When I see the first photographs we took back in 2004, I realize how much we have actually achieved. Although it is not a very neat or tidy garden, it is a really lovely place to be with lots of things going on. We had some Blue Tits nesting for the first time, Young thrushes observed giving our lovely slugs and snails a bashing (at last !). We have to count our blessings, having a little piece of heaven outside the backdoor.