Lots of firsts...

It's been another busy day - the first mow of the year, with a brand new lawnmower which Matthew (mower in chief) is very pleased with. It has revealed just how many holes and molehills there are in the lawn, so I hastily purchased a lawn repair kit to attempt to fix it! Also, the first time we have ever installed our rotary dryer, despite having had it in two previous houses - the first one had a very public garden and I never felt comfortable hanging my laundry out, so the dryer stayed in the shed - and the last house was between three building sites for most of the time we were there, so there was no point hanging clothes out to get dirty again. So the dryer stayed in the garage. Now it is finally installed outside the kitchen window, in a sunny and fairly windy location, and it has already had its first load of laundry, which dried in record time.

I went down to Blackwood Garden Centre this afternoon to get some more compost, and finally got round to buying a water butt, together with its attachment to capture water from a downpipe. They were out of stock of stands, so that will come later in the week, at which point we'll have a shot at following the instructions, complete with hacksaw...I only have room for a small butt near to the downpipe, so have bought a slimline one which holds 100 litres. By my reckoning, that's about a dozen watering cans-worth.

I also bought four large and healthy snow-in-summer plants (see previous post for my problems with these), so I am going to grow them on a little and then excavate large holes for them in the bank, fill with compost to counteract the clay, and hope for the best!

The robin and the cock blackbird were very excited about the mown grass, it has obviously churned up all sorts of tasty titbits. Cue much excavation of the clippings! Visitors to the house often comment about the range of birds visiting the garden feeders - I think it's 19 species so far, almost all daily visitors. The sunflower hearts have proved a great success, especially with the goldfinches, who ironically take no notice at all of the nyger seed thoughtfully provided for them. The sparrows were the 'early adopters' when I first started feeding sunflower hearts, which I am pleased about as they are in such decline nationally that anything I can do to help has got to be a good thing. Have even put up a nest box with the right size hole for them.

An awful lot of seeds are in various stages of germination around the house. The utility room looks like a greenhouse. I am mostly going for salad leaves, broad beans/peas/dwarf French beans, chard, spring onions, pak choi and my beloved sweet peas. Have bravely sown the broad beans straight into the lovely new raised bed - normally I grown them indoors in pots, but I thought I would risk it. If there's no signs of them in a couple of weeks I will revert to plan B with a very late sowing indoors. Have also decided to try tomatoes, which (like roses) I have always avoided as there is so much gardeners' mystique about them - but for goodness' sake, how hard can it be? As well as the traditional Moneymaker, which needs support, I have gone for two varieties designed for patio pots - Tiny Tim and Garden Pearl. Both sort of cherry types, and look reasonably idiot-proof. Watch this space...