Re: The gardening thread

[Fangirl Three]

I've nobly procrastinated for a whole hour, but I've run out of excuses, and things to do online, so I have no choice now but to go and mow the lawns.

[The Call of the Wendigo]

I have an excuse. It's raining.

[Fangirl Three]

Gosh that was hard work, first cut of the year on the short setting. And just as I was getting fed up with the gardening afterwards, it started raining, so I had the added pleasure of ceasing work and sitting just inside the shed cleaning and oiling the lawnmower while the rain pattered on the roof (newly refurbished by me in the spring).

Gosh - rain jinx!

[Fangirl Three]

Once again it is time for me to go out and do the mowing.

[Fangirl Three]

I mowed the lawns, and I was thoroughly launched on tidying up the far patio when a squally shower struck!

I had to get inside the shed and shut the door.

Then the sun came out and I nonchalantly emerged and continued gardening.

Till it started raining again and I decided to take the hint and down tools.

[Fangirl Three]

I'm getting a daily strawberry harvest at the moment - 2 on Sunday, 6 on Monday, 8 yesterday.

[The Call of the Wendigo]

[Fangirl Three]

7 more for tea today!

[Butterfield]

Out in the garden, in the beautiful sun today, on the lawn lay a dead rat with flies all over it. It's scenes like that which bring joy to one's garden.

I just left it there for nature to take its course and tried to erase the image from my mind.

[Fangirl Three]

One autumn a dead rat appeared in one of my flowerbeds, and over the next week it just gradually vanished until nothing was left, not even the bones. I was impressed by all the hardworking creatures who disassembled it.

[Butterfield]

Good garden news: The aforementioned fly-ridden dead rat has indeed vanished altogether since Sunday, but perhaps much quicker than Fangirl's dead rat. I'm guessing something else, perhaps a fox, took it away for a most unsavoury meal.

Bad garden news: Since I was last in the garden on Sunday, a very large tree branch overhanging from next door's garden in the far corner had snapped and fallen from a height onto the mahonia, a young conifer and a young variegated holly. It isn't even as though there have been any particular high winds or anything. So I dragged it out into the middle of the lawn and dissected it into smaller branches. Now, I understand that as it's a branch from a tree which originates next door I can legally throw the bits back over the fence. But to appease the next door neighbours I'll put the smaller bits in my green bin and throw the bigger bits back which won't fit in or even fit in my car to take to the tip; the remaining branch is rather large, even log-like. I might be able to saw through some of the thinner bits to chuck over the fence.

[Nightjar]

Is Buddha in the Garden still there?

[Butterfield]

Yes! Still sitting in a dark corner facing away from the house. The other day the mower kicked out a small stone which hit it at speed.

The fallen branch actually landed probably just a metre or so away from Buddha in the Garden.

[Fangirl Three]

The other day the mower kicked out a small stone which hit it at speed.

The dead rat and fallen branch are surely the signs of its displeasure.

The fallen branch actually landed probably just a metre or so away from Buddha in the Garden.

Where you would have been standing with the mower

[Nightjar]

[Butterfield]

[Fangirl Three]

I was thinking of using my day off to get ahead with the lawn mowing, but it's just too hot.

[The Call of the Wendigo]

[Fangirl Three]

In the end I just cut back the overhanging vegetation up the side of the garden path, and carried on tidying up the upper patio.

[The Call of the Wendigo]

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