Williams Red at last

Yesterday was the equinox and therefore the first day of spring! (Apparently) So my first action in the garden today is poo patrol. Yes, the neighbour's shitzus have breached the fence and were in my yard yesterday and that tends to mean one thing. I find several piles of what shitzus must be named for and throw them back over the fence. My neighbour was out this morning fixing the holes in the fence, but it's too late to fix the damage to my daffodils, tulips and the brown heuchera that was right in their landing path when they came through.


The evil bully cat (an unneutered male who has been picking on my cat) tried to walk through the yard today but I saw him and ran at him screaming and shouting. He ran off. However I noticed that the back corner of the yard smells strongly of cat pee, so for my one scare-off today who knows how many times he will come back to pee and bully?

On a more cheerful note, my Williams Red Pear tree arrived yesterday (from Dobies: http://www.dobies.co.uk/). It's very tall and looks almost as dead as my Lidl tree (despite costing about 5 fives as much!) Williams cross-pollinate with Beurre Hardy, and I think this could be the variety I got a bag of down at the market once: red pears, possibly the most amazing pears I ever had in my life.

So my main aim for today was to get this tree planted. (I really don't think the pear trees are dead... I just didn't expect them to sleep for so long! Although now spring is officially here, perhaps they will wake up.)
Soaking the roots before planting Planted!

Digging holes for trees is not a happy business. It's painful and back breaking and tedious. Especially in a part of yard that hasn't really been dug over before, although someone must have done some digging there once upon a time, how else would there be so much broken glass in the soil? But the hole is dug, the tree is planted and watered in and we are all happy.

I also plant my Wisley asparagus plant on top of the two Homebase plants (which I strongly suspect are dead) in the asparagus trench. I found a pile of shitzu in there this morning - not happy!

Since my back is holding up and the sun is shining, I do some weeding (want to get those dandelions, creeping buttercups and bindweed) and throw in some spring onion seeds next to the other seeds I listed from last week.


And now, a bit of a pictorial summary of what's going on in the garden now.

Here are the blueberries: the expensive Ebay one from Mighty Oak trading, the moderately priced Homebase one and the one from the 99p shop (can you tell the difference?)


Here are the daffodils that are out all over the garden in all their different colour combinations:



The raspberries, the gooseberry and the redcurrent all doing well (yes, even the ones from Lidl!)


The apple tree has proper leaves now! The chard has survived the winter and is still growing strong. The rose hyacinth is looking very pretty indeed.



I got some sweet pea seeds planted after soaking them overnight as recommended: two varieties from a six pack from the 99p store (when will I learn?) and also the wisteria seeds from the pods which have sat in the kitchen for about 2 months now.


In the greenhouse, there is a first sign of life! Some of the zinnia seeds are starting to poke through the soil.


In the kitchen, there is a tomato seedling inexplicably growing in with my Aloe Vera.