First cut

 

The lawn, cut - except for the cowslip patch

After the rain, we had three dry days over the Easter weekend, and managed the first cut of the lawn on Sunday.  The forecast was for a lovely sunny day, which didn’t materialise (cloud all day!), but the grass was dry enough for a high cut.  It’s amazing how much better the garden looks with the grass trimmed to a more manageable height.  The cowslips have been left, as they’re starting to flower, but we mowed over the top of the orchid leaves, which didn’t affect them but kept the surrounding vegetation low. 

The birds were very appreciative, as the cut made it easier for them to see the worms and insect life, as well as food dropped from the various bird feeders.  The blackbirds have started gathering food for their nestlings, while the robins are still at the stage of the male giving little food presents to his mate (as an indication of how he will provide for her when she’s on the nest).  Two song thrushes have been about – maybe a pair, maybe not – and are also collecting worms.  Other birds are busily collecting moss (the cowslip patch is a favourite spot for the sparrows) and other materials for their nests; the pair of mistle thrushes have been spotted gathering nest material, and a longtailed tit came to the kitchen window one day in search of spiders’ webs with the same intent.  Both blue and great tits have been checking out the nestbox, but don’t seem to have staked a claim yet.

Other birds have been showing up, in search of food, water or shelter.  A yellowhammer was at the bottom of the garden one day, doing his ‘little-bit-of-bread-and-no-cheeeese’ song; a small warbler came by another day, a pair of bullfinches have been eating the buds on the plum tree and a pair of greenfinches seemed to be attracted by the bathing opportunities in the pond.  We even had a marsh tit on the peanut feeder.  And a swallow flew overhead on Sunday, the first of the year.  The pair of partridges have been hanging out regularly, mostly in and around the veg patch.  They can’t do much damage there at the moment; the broad beans are under fleece for protection from the squirrel, and the garlic and shallots are sprouted far enough to be fairly immune to disturbance.  Other crops are still at the seedling stage in the greenhouse.  One of the partridges was hiding under the big gooseberry bush one day, watching me in the greenhouse before being joined by his mate, but their favourite place is on a weedy veg bed, where they can nibble the weeds; this bed is currently occupied by the frame of a cloche that has lost its cover but contains a bit of rigid plastic netting (used to protect the radicchio from pigeons last autumn), and the partridges seem to regard it as a place of safety as well as warmth when the sun is out. 

One partridge, peeping out ....

... and with its mate ...

... and in their favourite shelter

Warmth and sun are going to be in short supply for a few days; we’re now having showers, heavy rain and some very blustery winds.

While the grass clippings were fresh, I took the opportunity to restart the Hotbin.  This has been a Coldbin over the winter; it reached good temperatures last summer, but when we were away in the autumn it cooled down (it requires regular feeding to stay hot) and I left it alone during the colder months.  The contents were rather half-composted but satisfyingly full of worms (how do they get into an insulated container?), and will be gradually fed back into the bin in the hope that they will provide some starter material.  The grass clippings, with some buddleja prunings, got the bin off to a good start; the temperature rose overnight from 10C to over 40C (110F), but has dropped again as the composting process started and the volume went down (the bin needs a certain volume of waste to work properly).  I’m hoping I can get it working rather better this year.

In the weedy end of the row of fruit cordons, I found seven stems of Narcissus ‘Silver Chimes’ about to bloom.  I planted these some years back with the intention of cutting them for the house, and was very pleased with them, but after the first year they seemed to disappear; they have now presumably bulked up again.  I cut them, with some of the nearby pulmonaria, for a posy for the dining room table; they’re lovely little flowers, highly scented and very pretty.  I must consider moving the bulbs to a better spot.

'Silver Chimes' with pulmonaria