May 2005

 

Clematis Montana has been good everywhere this year and so has choisya. I was particularly pleased with the rhododendrums I put in two years ago. The ones bordering the patio have been a mass of colour.

Although many plants were early this year, the cold of late March and April has set the ceanothus and early roses back so they are going to be later than they were last year. The nights are certainly colder this May than they were last and we have had frosts. I had to rush round covering my potatoes. The ones I left uncovered had their tops scorched.

The Pond Saga Continues

After the death of all those frogs I consulted the staff of the Wild life Centre who have offices at Parklands, about a mile up the road from me. I told them that the newts seemed to be doing OK. Their advice was to do nothing until the autumn

When I returned home , however, I found dead newts, dead watersnails and a swathe of dead tadpoles floating on the surface of the pond so I went up to Ecobs, a local garden centre that specialises in pond materials. They advised me to tie a weight to my hosepipe and sink it to the bottom of the pond and let the water overflow for three hours. I did that and it stopped the pond smelling for a while but the bubbling started again. I am now doing this regularly and hope that eventually the bubbling will cease although I expect the pond to go green again before it clears.

My elder son says Chris must have dropped a lot of cement in the pond when he mortared the bricks and it poisoned the frogs but when the water clears after I've used the hosepipe I can't see cement there.