This summer's project
We move quite slowly here in terms of what goes on in the garden and then I look back and realise that we have done things and maybe it is beginning to show. The new native hedges which went in during the autumn of 2008 are looking just a bit more settled this spring as they begin to come into leaf. There are two lines of mixed edible planting: hawthorn for haws, blackthorn for sloes, dog roses for rose hips and hazel for nuts with one of two cherry plums for good measure. The dog rose leafs first, its new foliage a bright green spurt against the spiny twigs. And the new fruit trees are a bit bigger this year too, even if the mulberries are still not yet as as high as my head and won't be for years either by the look of them. The daffodils round their feet are less spotty than they have been. They are starting to bulk up and to spread and are just beginning to look like the faintest echo of what is in my head. It was the daffodils which set me off ...