Snowdrop Season

Apparently we have just had the wettest January since records began. I can well believe it, the number of times we got drenched walking the dogs. We have also had more snow than the previous two winters we have spent up here, although it has never stayed around for more than a day or two.

I think the snowdrops are a couple of weeks later coming into their full glory up here. I had been bemoaning to Janet up the road a while back that they are not so good this year, but I was a little premature. As far as my garden is concerned it is a good thing as I still had not cleared the autumn debris. However, the weather has been much improved over the last few days and on Sunday I ventured out to start the clear up operation.

I started with the area at the bottom of the drive, where the nettles and brambles encroach from the wilderness area behind it. It is a balance between clearing the dried out nettle stems etc and not stomping all over the snowdrops I am trying to give access to. I could get so far up the bank, and then decided to complete it from the top down. This entailed having to clear the area at the back of the sheds.

Last year I found that there is a large plum tree behind the sheds but I could not reach the plums because of all the self-stoned/suckered trees growing around it and the forest of brambles wrapped around them.

Out came my trusty loppers. I gradually cleared a path through, with multiple trips pulling the 'baby' tree prunings (some must have been reaching almost 10 feet in height) back out around the sheds. I filled two bin bags with brambles and general crud.

I sustained a very painful injury when they started fighting back, and a branch whipped back into my eye. 'Ouch' or words to that effect. It is still very sore and red...

The mist started rolling in in the early afternoon but I was not to be deterred, and eventually finished the job after about four hours of hard graft.

Paul had been away playing bridge, and when quizzed the next day on what I had done in the garden failed dismally... His excuse was that he had been looking in the garden proper and tried hedging his bets on various other areas.

The mist didn't clear yesterday until around lunch time.

I was surprisingly free from aches and pains (other than my eye), and decided to start clearing the high bank in the afternoon. As I was just cutting back last seasons stems and flower heads it only took a couple of hours. Two bin bag loads of old asters, phloxes, peonies, sedums and crocosmia. I sustained a few stings from nettles coming back up - but that will be a job for after the snowdrops have finished.