A day in the Garden

This morning hubby and I went shopping for yet more fencing stuff and some stuff for the garden. The long term plan is to be semi self sufficient which means growing stuff, having chickens, runner ducks and possibly other livestock. It's that dream picture which I'm sure will have it's ups and downs along the way.

There has obviously been a large vegetable garden here before, which, if you've read my previous posts you will know, contained about 200+ brassica plants of at least 4 feet in height! The other things that are  in abundance are weeds! Lots and lots of weeds! Thistles, dandelions, lots of things I can't identify and grass!

All the brassicas are now down, and most of them have been secateur'd into the bits that have gone onto the new compost heap and the stems which are drying out ready to be burnt - all being well! There are still about 30-40 left to deal with but I decided I needed a break from brassica chopping so decided to make a start on digging up the difficult weeds like the thistles. 4 barrow loads down and I'm just beginning to see where I've been! 

I know I'm amazingly lucky as I have a Potager(that's french for kitchen veg garden!) area that is 20m x 25m with fruit trees on either side and other fruit trees elsewhere in the garden, and once I start to feel as if I have a plan for what is going where and started to clear some of the flipping weeds so I can see the soil I will start to appreciate what I have! 

There are other small garden areas and lots and lots of grass - all of which needs cutting but is too wet! It's been dry all day so maybe tomorrow is the day for hubby to get out the lawnmower! 

It's times like today that I am so grateful for where we live and yet so acutely aware of how little I know about gardening, even though I thought I was a bit of a gardener! I keep finding plants and shrubs I don't recognise and spend quite a lot of time wondering if this or that is a plant or a weed? Then I reassure myself that my Dad, who was an amazing gardener, would have said it doesn't matter, because if it's in the wrong place it's a weed whatever!

Anyone know what this is? They are all over the place...

This is one of the older ones!

These are the leaves

 

 

 

 

 






















 I can't decide whether or not to take one or two of them out. I've chopped back some other shrubs quite ferociously, mostly in order to put the fencing in, but today I attacked the bush at the right side of the older one in the picture above as I discovered there were two roses absolutely smothered by whatever that is. But that's a question for another time.