First mow of the garden in 2011

The lawn and all the grassy banks have been mown for the first time today. What a great smell that fresh cut grass is- a real feeling of summer on the way.
I've also been taking a look at my herb garden to see what's happening there.
The bay has been badly hit by frost and needs a heavy trim.
The rosemary has been completely killed off and will need replanting.


However, the Sweet Cicely is coming up well, just in time to sweeten the first rhubarb. Did you know that sweet cicely cuts the sharpness and so reduces the amount of sugar needed. Read more about sweet cicely from these links.

Sweet cicely in May 2010 in White Moss house herb garden

Time to get out now that the days are longer

We've just passed the Spring Equinox, so that means it's official! The days are now longer than the night, and this means that the garden is going to take off pretty fast .
I'm looking out of the window at my herb garden and it's a sad sight just now.
The bay tree was badly hit by the very cold winter, and will need a heavy prune to get rid of all the dead leaves.
The sage and marjoram need cutting back.
However, the Sorrel and the Lovage are beginning to show through, and as long as the sheep and the deer don't find them we'll soon be able to use them in cooking.

Frost again in the Lake District

Just when you think it's getting a bit more spring like, along comes a very heavy overnight frost.
The Sorrel had just been peeping its head out above ground, but that will now be put on hold. In any case, we were invaded by the local Herdwick Sheep yesterday, who nibbled everthing in sight until I drove them out.

I've done a quick repair of the fence, but now they've got back in  here once, there will be no stopping them!

Oh dear, problems with deer.

You can get a list from the local garden centre, or from the internet, of plants that deer don't like.
Don't believe it- they eat almost anything.
Even in the middle of winter the deer are coming into the gadren- we see their droppings in the morning. Any shoot that dares stick its head avove ground ricks being nibbled to death.
I've found a great book here that I'd love for my birthday next month- anyone looking?

It's a new year in the Lake District Garden

Not much has been happening in the garden lately. Rain, snow, frost and general winter weather has made it an unattractive proposition.

This week however we had a couple of days that felt like spring, so we've been out tidying- sweeping up the magnolia leaves from the path, and pruning the jasmine.
I expect it's quite the wrong thing to do, to hack away at a jasmine in January, but I'd not had the heart to cut it back in autumn. The deer found it in December and thought the last of the leaves looked tasty, so we were left with long shoots of jasmine waving around in the wind.

We need to put a load of compost on the Jasmine now. A few years of having a jasmine with lots of leaves but no flowers have taught me that you need to put more compost than you think would be necessary on the jasmine root to make sure you get those sweet scented flowers in summer.

Frost forecast- time to tidy the garden

We've got frost forecast for Wednesday, so I MUST get out and tidy the tubs, bringing in the fuschia and geraniums that I want to keep for next year.
I'm going to ask if I can keep them in George's greenhouse as he's not using it this year.
By the way- if you're thinking about winter soups not the summer plants are over, you might like to think about using my celeriac recipes. Take a look.