A Grave Job.

Yesterday morning I decided to sweep the front drive as there was getting to be be quite a congregation of leaves and sticks. While there I noticed some miniature Daffodils  flowering. I remember planting these a few years ago after the boss lifted them from his garden in London and brought them up here for me to do something with. It seems to mean more when there is a bit of a story behind them and not just something purchased from somewhere, not that ever takes away the beauty of them though.

After completing work on the drive I still had a few minutes to fill until break time so I went in to the churchyard which is next to the drive and cleared some more Ivy from the graves. I did some clearing before Christmas when I had a bit of time to spare but there is still quite a lot to do. While the church is connected to the estate and village it's not within my jurisdiction for maintenance as they pay someone else to look after it and really I have enough to do but I can't stand to see the Ivy and other plants slowly taking over from the edges. So, it's time to take a stand and fight back and as no one else seems bothered it looks like being me and the head gardener.

The two grave stones in the picture below were completely covered in Ivy before I cleared them a few weeks back and it's such a shame, especially as the one in the shape of a cross is quite the work of art. I will try and get a better picture of it some time. Yesterday I just had time to clear around the base of it, next time I will clear around the one behind. 

Ivy Trimming In The Courtyard.

Yesterday we managed to get one of the annual jobs in the Courtyard completed. To be honest it was all my own work as the head gardener decided to take a day off after bird feeding duties had been undertaken. Anyway there are places where Ivy is allowed to grow on walls  so every year it needs to be trimmed to keep it under control. I know some people pull faces about Ivy being allowed to grow but I find that provided it's kept under control then it can add something to the look of the place. Just the same as anything else really, if it's allowed to get out of control then it becomes a nuisance. When done every year is an easy enough job of trimming up the face of it with a hedge cutter and then snipping around the outline with a pair of hand pruners. I also use a paint scraper to unstick it from whatever it's growing up.

Below are some before and after pictures of a couple of the main area's tidied up yesterday.

These first two pictures were take from our upstairs window. 

Homemade Plant Labels.

I recently made these plant labels out of the left over strips from venetian blinds. I first painted them with undercoat paint, allowed to dry and then painted the tips with gloss paint as I feel that will give them more protection from rotting. I have tried this before but without glossing the tips and whilst they were good while they lasted they only really lasted a season. I will probably save these to use in pot plants rather than out in the garden. They were set out in the seed tray like this while the paint dried. I used hand pruners to cut them to size and shape.