A Day in The Garden

Mrs B and I have been promising ourselves a day in the garden to get everything tidied up before Winter comes. Today was the first day when we had no other commitments and the weather was fine - in fact it was brilliant!

After a touch of overnight frost I was well wrapped up when we ventured out this morning. However, there was real warmth in the sun and it wasn't ling before the jacket was off. It was our intention to start pulling out all the annuals and digging over the borders, but we couldn't bring ourselves to removing plants that still had some nice flowers. They were reprieved for another few weeks and just as well given the number of bees and butterflies that were about. The Lavender, which will get cut back once it stops flowering, was the centre of attention for a couple of Small Tortoiseshell Butterflies, something we have rarely seen all Summer.

So instead of removing plants, Mrs B busied herself weeding while I tidied a couple of areas behind the shed and garage. These are the out of sight spots used for storing pieces of wood, plant pots, potting compost, old pallets, bags of sand and all the other items you need to hide somewhere. The pallets were ready to be thrown out and were used as the basis of a wee bonfire that got rid of a load of other old junk and trimmings from a number of Rhoddie bushes that were cut back.

We both enjoy working in the garden and on a day like today it is a real joy!

You really should go LARGE on the Tortoiseshell to see its coiled probiscus after sucking nectar from the Lavender!