Gardening

Fon du Bourg sits on about two acres of land.

Of course, the buildings take up some of that land, the pools a bit more and there are a couple of drives and pathways.

But that still leaves a fair bit of 'garden'.

And remember - before buying Fon du Bourg in the Autumn of 2022, Richard and I lived in an apartment in Edinburgh for eighteen years.

We arrived at Fon du Bourg at the very end of August but as guests; we bought the place officially on 11th October.  By this time the previous owners had done many of the end of summer tasks and as we were busy doing other things we didn't really think too much about the gardens other than to tidy them, dig over some beds and rake the leaves.

(Richard did build (yes, build) three compost bins from the saplings we thinned out - he stuck the trunks in the ground and then withied the branches to form the bins which are now being filled with garden off cuts.)

But over the past couple of weeks spring has well and truly sprung - at least in the afternoons when the sun has burned off the morning chill - and that means things are growing again.

We first noticed that the grass was looking a bit shaggy a couple of weeks ago.  Unfortunately Richard had broken the Ride-On back in November.  It took until the end of January for the part he needed to arrive and it finally got fixed on Thursday last week.  That meant that I had to push a big, heavy petrol mower around two thirds of our lawns - probably almost an acre or so - that was until Richard proudly announced the Ride-On was fixed and proceeded to cut the final third before taking all the glory for making the grass look fantastic.

We also bought a garden waste shredder - I can chop branches up to 45mm in diametre into little chunks which can then go straight onto the garden.

Add to this the digging of beds, planting of bulbs and the shifting of compost* and it's been hard work over the last few days - I certainly ache in places that I never knew could ache!  I pulled so many weeds out of the ground the other day that as I lay in bed I thought there was something wrong with my hands; they were that sore - that was until I realised that it was just the effort it had taken me to grip and pull the weeds - which of course have ended up on the compost heap.

We have a fair bit of work to do and I suspect that this is going to be an ongoing task... I never realised daisies would be my nemesis.  These are six foot tall, bright yellow daisies.  They look lovely but they take over the garden and the roots are almost impossible to remove!

But I have to say that I am actually loving it - and I think Richard is too, although it's sometimes hard to tell.  I did catch him watching a video yesterday about how to manage water saturation in heavy clay soil... I'll keep you posted on that one!

Yes, I'm loving it: I ache and I'm not 100% sure what's going to come out of the ground over the next few weeks but I'll put some pictures up.  And, yesterday, when we walked around the garden the trees have their first blossoms - as far as I can tell, as there are only one or two actual flowers, they're all pink and the place is going to look lovelier in a few days time!

*Compost - the previous owner left a large, round mound covered in a tarp and plastic sheet on the West Meadow.  He said it was a really good compost heap full of... well... sort of what you'd expect in a compost heap.

I didn't believe him and told Richard that it needed to go.  Richard duly started digging through the heap and (apart from the oyster shells he found) there was some good quality stuff in there - which has now been spread on our flowers beds.  Richard complained a little bit - because he's taken out about twenty barrow loads with probably about the same to go!