150L of farmyard manure in ...

... 150L of solid clay out and eventually I had some soil that I could plant the sweet peas in. The canes came from our overgrown bamboo patch - how self-sufficient is that? I'll post another picture of this when it is a riot of colour (hopefully!).

Preparing the table decorations

I've heard of gardening on heavy clay, but this is ridiculous! I was digging over a new bit of ground to make a sweet pea bed and every spadeful brought up clods like this. The idea is to grow sweet peas for the tables, but we could make pots to put the sweet peas in as well! Or maybe that's not quite the look the bride has in mind.

Sprucing up the boxes

If it takes one woman two hours to tidy the box border of the parterre bed, how long does it take her husband to recover after he observes that the box hedge needs a bit of tidying?

No parking on 27-3-12

That's what it said in yellow writing on the road outside our house from the crack of dawn this morning. That's what the inconsiderate drivers who park there to avoid the car parking charges at the station ignored, making it impossible for the army of re-surfacing men to get started. Those drivers are now trying to find their towed away cars. Sorry if I sound a tad unsympathetic, but over the last year they have made it far more difficult than it should have been to get materials for the garden delivered. (And that's my excuse for including it in here!)

Welcome BST!

What a glorious weekend to see in British Summer Time! Spent a lot of it clearing, digging, weeding and enjoying the plants that are just starting to show their faces. The bank is covered in wonderful primroses like these.

Anyone know what the plant above the clump of primroses is?

One ton of Bury Hill Black

One ton of Bury Hill Black topsoil was safely manoeuvred over the hedge to top up the front flower bed. It's great soil, made from silt from an old fishing lake near Dorking combined with sand and compost. This is the Bury Hill Story. Amazing the work that goes into making soil!