A weekend in the garden

My mum's been here all weekend, and since I won't see her again before my birthday, she brought my presents. First up were these beautiful miniature daffs, which we planted outside the kitchen window. 

I also got sage and oregano plants, which go nicely with the other herbs I planted last week, and this bag of compost from the bottom of mum's compost bin she started last year.

Isn't a bag of compost, especially home made, a fabulous present for someone with none of their own? We spread it over the soil, and round the new herbs and the lettuce we planted out in a pot. We also measured up for my compost bin, so hopefully I'll be able to return the favour next year ;) 

This is the front garden once we'd finished in it.

There's still quite a lot of bare soil, but I've got more seedlings on the go which will go in here, and the plants that are in there will fill out over the year. I didn't really get it cleared in time to plant green manure last year, but I will next winter. 

This is the side garden once we'd finished.

It doesn't look like we did much! But we cleared the seating area (just out of the picture), pruned the fuchsia so it wasn't overhanging the path, and put all the bits I've cut down over the past few weeks into green bags ready to be taken away. The whole garden looks much better now the path's brushed - something I never think to do! 

It was a lovely weekend, we had a couple of nice walks too. I also tried another batch of yogurt - with ordinary milk this time instead of UHT. It didn't work! I left it overnight and it was just milk with lumpy bits in... I'll get some dried milk powder maybe, and try again. I'd love to be able to make my own yogurt, but obviously need a bit more of a consistent technique.

 

It was a good weekend for wildlife in the garden. It never ceases to amaze me the amount we get in such a small space. Here's the resident (well, round the corner) wood pigeon, foraging in the bits of grass growing from the seed pushed off the bird table (I really must do something about that!)

 

And we found this cheery frog under a pile of bricks and concrete we were moving out of a corner. 

He wasn't too impressed when we moved the bricks he was sheltering under, but we put a few back without disturbing him, and left some water out. He was still there last night, hopefully he's got a more suitable home somewhere close!