Goodbye willows

I can't believe it was June when I last posted to this blog - so much for my good intentions. Still nothing much different happened in July  except that it has rained and rained - the wettest July for 18 years. We had 207 points - over 8 inches.

On the few sunny days we had, mark found the time to cut down the last of the willows. Amazing what a difference it has made to the amount of light  and sun we get on the house now.

 As you can see, now that the leaves have fallen, the last willow was badly broken and I always worried that it might fall om someone when it was heavy with leaves.

 In the end it was very stubborn and had to be cut down in sections. The last trunk just would not fall and Mark had to drop it on part of the garden eventually. Luckily it missed the camellias and did minimal damage. Now comes the huge task of cutting the branches, piling them up and burning them.

You can see from the picture above how et this winter has been. This paddock usually has cattle in it, but not right now.

I have been using every second of the few dry days to prune the roses and hydrangeas - running alittle late this year.  The other shrubs worry me less, but I need roses and hydrangeas to provide me with summer colour. At the moment my colour is coming from jonquils and camellias, though the daffodils are almost in flower.

I do love camellias - no nonsense, no problems, no pruning, little watering and yet they regularly produce these glorious blossoms just when you are really feeling the winter blues.

Liz Needle