A busy weekend

I thought I would start the week with a photo, unfortunately there is not much in flower in our garden at the moment so here is one I took earlier, hope you like it.

Carnations

We were pretty busy over the weekend. As I have said before we try to get actively involved in village life and I have been co-opted onto a couple of village committees one of which is to write a Parish plan. On Saturday morning we ran focus groups to get ideas from the villagers, this was great fun and really worthwhile.

Whilst the groups were running I had a couple of free hours and managed to get out into the garden. Last year I decided to leave the area at the bottom of the garden wild, mainly for wildlife but also as a visual trick to blend the garden into the fields beyond. I also made a fake gate out of an old pallet which I sat in the hedge and mowed a path to it. It works really well, loads of visitors have tried to use it! Anyway back to Saturday. I have been sowing this area with wild flower seeds, but the grasses are really dominant. To try and control them I have decided to sow Yellow Rattle Rhinanthus minor which is parasitic on grasses and reduces their vigor. The seeds turned up on Saturday morning so I decided to sow them , I had already cut the grass right down to soil level. I then raked the soil to create small furrows and spread the seed over the area. I will report back on how well it works.

On Sunday I carried on digging our flower bed, trying to get rid on the Meadow buttercup Rannuculus acris which takes over if you let it. When I got bored with this I carried on sorting out the potting shed making tool hangers for the wall. My shed is coming on quite well, I have all the essentials, chair, radio, and a camping stove to make coffee, at some point I want to run power in so I can have a light in there. I also want to put a green roof on it planted with wild flowers and short grasses, has anyone done this as I would love some tips.