A Bit More Ivy Trimming

There hasn't been a lot to report this past few days as I must confess to having been taking it easy due to feeling a bit under the weather. I'm not a doctor or anything so I'm not going to blame the covid jab that I had but the day after having it I've been having this underlying tiredness about me plus aching and shivers. It almost feels like I'm coming down with a bad case of the flu but it never develops into anything further. I rested up for a while and it went away and then last weekend it came back again. I feel like I am much recovered again this morning so I will try not to take on to much for the rest of the week and hopefully see the back of it as I need to get things done.

Anyway here is one of the jobs we managed to get done. Another Ivy trimming job. I cut this all back last year so it was just a maintenance trim just to bring it back to the desired level. 

In the picture below you can see that in just one year the growth has covered the gap to the top of the wall and is also growing over the top.

These are the tools that I find useful for Ivy trimming plus the hedge cutter or a pair of garden shears to clip the face of it if need be. In this instance there were only a few long ends that I nipped off with the pruners which is why there is no hedge cutter in the picture. The pruners are an old pair as they can get abused a bit scraping away and the stone work and what have you.

This is the finished article. We also pruned the roses in the border once the Ivy was cleared and then we weeded and forked the soil 

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.

Christmas Arrangements & Burning Ears.

 Hello everyone, hopefully you are all feeling well and looking forward to Christmas. Because of the covid situation Vicki's mum has had to cancel her visit. She was going to be spending a few days with us over Christmas so that's a bit disappointing but apart from that things are going well.

Unfortunately there is a bit of animosity in the village at the moment because it seems that someone has travelled up from London after the covid restrictions were applied and some people have take exception to it. I've not heard of anything official being done about it but if the muttering and chunttering are anything to go by the fire brigade may have to be called to extinguish some burning ears.

I know, I've been letting the side down with the picture posting of decorations. It seems like the more time one has to spare the less time I have to get everything done. Anyway I will redeem myself a little by posting a few pictures all at once so as to get back on track. The pictures tonight are the rest of the ones from the landing window.

Christmas Arrangement No.2.

 This is one of the Christmas arrangements we have on the landing window sill. 

This Years Christmas Tree.

 As there is to be no more gardening this year I thought I would do a few Christmas posts as Vicki puts a lot of effort in to decorating the house in a number of festive ways so it I think it would be nice to have a record of them. So with that theme in mind I will start with a picture of our Christmas tree to be followed with something different each day until I run out. The tree as always is in the sitting room although we have moved it to the other side of the room this year for a bit of a change.

Today I received my December pay slip which usually contains a bonus for the past years work, this year though there is no mention of it so unless they have something different planned it looks like there is to be no bonus this year. This is very disappointing considering I worked just as hard as ever this past year. No doubt they will say it's because of the virus situation but that's not my fault. Anyway we will see.

Preparing For Our Christmas Break.

 After what appeared to be a week free of rat activity in the greenhouse I got to work this morning to find a rat caught in the live trap. This is rat number six that I've caught and since the environmental pest control office  came and put poison down there has been a terrible smell of rotting flesh in the hot house so goodness knows how many there were to start with. It's certainly not been a pleasant environment to be in this Autumn not to mention the damage done to plants both through what they have done and from neglect due to not being able to work in there properly. For the first time ever that I'm aware of we have had a proper company taking care of controlling these pests and this has turned out to be the worst time ever for them around the greenhouses. I think the trouble is that the company has been reactive rather than preventative. I told them when they came to look round where the rats go every year but instead of having precautions in place for when the rats arrive they showed up two months after the first ones were spotted which has enabled the rats to get established. But it's the same old story, being a stupid gardener what do I know.

After the rat situation was under control I had to pick up the Christmas tree from the mower shed where someone had left it and take it round to the hall where I erected it in the entrance hall. The family will decorate it when they come to stay for Christmas.

Most of the rest of the day was spent in the potting shed potting up Sweet Pea and Scotts Pine seedlings. I wanted to get these done for the holidays so as to avoid any damping off problems should they arise. The Sweet Pea were ready for potting on anyway as their roots would soon have been tangling together.

Broad Bean Planting.

Back at the beginning of November I planted some Broad Bean seeds in pots which have come on well to the point of now needing to be planted out which is what the head gardener and I did today. I also had a few Spring Cabbage plants so I popped them in next to the Beans. The soil is very wet which meant I had to work off a plank of wood and remove any foot prints with a fork before the job was finished.

To protect the cabbages in particular from the wildlife I covered both with some mess. Also in the picture you can see what is left of last years cabbage patch.

To finish the day off we cleared some leaves up from around the potting shed, it was one of the little jobs I wanted to get done before I finish work on Tuesday evening as that is to be the last day of this year for us. We are taking a well earned break. We've only had four days annual leave since last Christmas so I have plenty of days to take a long break.

More work On the North Front.

 As promised in the last post here are some pictures of progress from work on the North Front. I won't put the before pictures on again in this post as they are only in the previous post so is easy enough just to go back and forth if you wish to compare.

In this first picture you can see where I have reduced the Holly trees and cut back the rose that was climbing through them. It was a shame to cut back the rose but it needed to be done in order to repair the wall that is in danger to falling down. There were actually stones coming out as I was working on the rose.

This is another angle and a closer look. I don't like the way the far Holly has turned out but there is not much else I can do other then cut it right back and start again. I'm hoping it will improve with time and some regular pruning. None of it wants to be allowed to grow up as it was apart from the rose but even that needs some careful training.

This area of work is a big improvement. There always was a little path up the side of the rose border but it was overgrown and lost to time. Now as you can see it has been reinstated.

Here is the view from the back looking towards the front of the house.

This is another angle. Here the way is partially cleared, I just had a bit more work to do on the shrub.

This is the finished article. After the cutting back I had to find some edging stones and fixed in before laying a bit of gravel. I just need to fork over the rose bed when the soil dries out which won't be until the new year now.