Wild Gardening

At the start of this year I decided that we would honour what was naturally happening in the large garden here at The Potters House Penketh...let's call it "Wild Gardening".

We call the back garden the  field as it's almost an acre of land.

Wildness around the apple orchard.

It was part of the Penketh Heath..and the road we live on was once the pathway through the heath on the east.

Then as we all know...coronavirus struck ...and affected us here in Penketh on the edge of the Mersey like everyone else around the world..

So locked in behind the iron gates of the field...there is little to do but garden!

Gone is the thought of a wild garden

Instead the grass has been cut,,,

 the labyrinth trimmed..

.and the vegetable patches have never been so prepared as this year.

a spot for peas and beans...

..I even had time to string up these cd's and stop the wood pigeons chomping on the domestic cherry tree this year...last year we got nothing!

The apple trees have been trimmed...and the blossom is already budding.

In the untimely heat of this April lockin..the garden is glorious.

Time to wander on the paths...the potter says seven circuits might make a mile

...so far I've done three each day!

Sun up...Sun down...

Bird song...loud enough to wake the sleepiest...

...daylight creeping through the gap in the curtains earlier and earlier...

... and I creep out of the bedroom without waking the sleeping potter...

...down the creaking stairs...why do all stairways creak?...

...kettle on for a cuppa and a hottie...a hottie?...well I'm going out into the garden and traipsing down the field to the summerhouse with camera and book and a hottie just in case it's a wee bit chilly down there.

...snuggle up into a wicker chair with a  blanket 

tucked over my legs.......excellent...luxury....wonderful!

The sun is just rising at the front of the house and a mist has turned the trees to pale gold...

...six in the morning ...and all is well...

..

....and the sun makes it's way through the alleyway  where the sunbeams dance in the mistiness...

...soon the mist  dissapates and the old apple tree receives the strengthening sunbeams  

filling the path in the potter's allotment...

I settle down to listen to the birds...and watch them search for food in the dew washed grass...

...food to keep their progeny plump and happy.

The working day soon takes over 

and the garden is deserted.

But evening brings with it the western light...low in the sky...and a glimpse out of a window reveals another garden altogether...

...no mist here...

... the air is sharp for a May day this year... but that brings with it  hard light and long crisp shadows stretching along the grass.

...the blue of the bluebells seems almost iridescent in this light...

... May's foliage is soft and emerald green...

..the smell of the bluebells intoxicating..

...it draws me out..back down the path ...

...under the arch..

..into another world.

Back in the Garden...

What a winter...but at long last we are getting into the garden and trimming and protecting, and all of the other things that probably should have been done in March.

Nobody was doing any gardening in March around here!!

The frogs have spawned and the little pond at the bottom of the field is full to overflowing with it.

The potter is climbing ladders again...and very happy to be doing so.

This apple tree is a great fruiter but needed the centre opening up.

He's the man who can!

...and this year we were determined to get to the cherry tree before the wood pigeons...

Two years ago it was so prolific that I was able to make a glass "topf"  full of cherry brandy.

....my sister's German recipe.....

Last year the pigeons made it before us and we only managed to salvage a handful of cherries.

They eat the the buds ...they must be sooo sweet...before they have a chance even to start to become cherries...

Well yaahooo!!

you fat wood pigeons....got there before you this time

...not as if there isn't lots of other lovely stuff to go for...

...and by the way birds...

lay off the peas also this year!!