Wild no more

Today was all about the wildflower patch. Or, rather, the complete decimation of the wildflower patch.

Amazingly, it took almost all day. As well as hitting it with the whipper snipper (strimmer for British readers) it had to be raked then mowed AND have the temporary fence removed. And it’s not finished. I’ll have to wait a few days for the stubble to rise from its incumbent position so I can run the mower over it again. Once a year, indeed!

Anyway, this is how it looked first thing this morning, just before I fired up the new toy.

I was a bit concerned that the dogs might get in the way, especially after reading that the model I’d bought is one of the quietest on the market. My fears, however, were groundless. It made enough noise to ensure they stayed well out of my reach as I swished and ripped my way through the patch.

I guess the worst bits were where the wildflowers had grown through the fence. They really didn’t want to let go and took some convincing. Still, I managed to persuade them in the end. By end of play, the wildflower patch looked mostly like this.

There is a section of fence I’ve had to leave in place because it still has sweet peas growing up, through and over it. Still, it doesn’t make a lot of difference. And, just for the record, here’s my new toy, nicely broken in.

I then mowed the grass at the back and strimmed around the base of the dovecote, something I’ve never done before. It was while I was busy on the lawn that Emma and Freya decided to have a bit of a wrestle in the newly trimmed wildflower patch.

While, clearly, they had a lot of fun, it did mean that Freya was absolutely covered in seeds and smelled pretty rank. Emma managed to avoid both because she remained on top and in control the whole time.

The upshot of that was that Freya had to have a bath followed by a jolly good brushing. She was not keen!

So, quite a busy day in our garden today.