Repairing the lawn

bare patches seeded with grass seed

I have noticed the lawns are looking a little threadbare, worse still, large and growing bare patches.

It has been wet since last weekend when I was last in the garden. Not as cold as it has been, though cooler than the weekend. Maybe it is a myth, but it is rumoured it will be approaching 20 C come the weekend. A marked contrast to a week ago when it was snowing.

Ideal conditions for sowing some grass seed.

I spiked the ground with a fork to loosen the surface soil, sprinkled compost over the bare patches, then sowed grass seed.

I finished an hour or so later when I ran out of time, energy and grass seed.

My friends the robin and blackbird were there to keep me company.

First days of spring and it is snowing

snow in spring

Two days ago it was the first day of spring, 21 March 2013.

Yesterday heavy freezing rain.

This morning I awoke to find it was snowing.

Projected, the coldest March in 50 years.

Top Story in The Daily Garden (Saturday 23 March 2012).

Hard frost at midday

midday on 12 of December 2012

Midday, and yet cold hard frost.

I went out lunchtime. Only a few minutes down the road, I was frozen, my feet were cold. Ten minutes later, my head was throbbing with the cold.

Twenty minutes later, I was at a railway station waiting for a train.

From the train window, everywhere white with frost. It was as though I was travelling through Siberia.

Only last night, I had been discussing Aleph, travelling on the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Hard frost this morning

a hard frost

a hard frost

a hard frost

A hard frost this morning that remained all day.

By night time, close to midnight, minus two degrees Centigrade.

Cold wintry morning

light sprinkling of snow in the garden

light sprinkling of snow in the garden

light sprinkling of snow in the garden

End of November, beginning of December, cold hard frost in the morning.

Yesterday at the farmers market in Guildford it was very cold, with a cold wind blowing. I was glad to be indoors as it was getting dark. It turned very cold during the night.

This morning it was white. I thought frost but no, a light sprinkling of snow. The first snow of the winter.

Not far away, heavy snow, airports and roads closed.

• Snow leads to crashes and delays in parts of UK

Cold frosty morning

frosty garden

The second day of December and winter has finally arrived.

For three successive days, cold hard frost in the morning.

• First hard frost of the winter

Strange objects in the garden

bees scavenging a fallen honeycomb for honey

I was mowing the grass this morning before the heavy rains swept in, when I spotted what I thought was slices of melon lying in the grass, covered in ants, as I got nearer, covered in wasps.

As I drew closer I found it was neither, it was slices of honeycomb (or what appeared to be slices), covered in bees.

I thought remove to the compost heap, then thought better of it, as I did not wish to be attacked by the bees.

The bees warned me off, but once they got used to me, they left me alone.

I had to be careful, as they were not only on the honeycomb, they were also on the grass.

I was baffled where it had come from. I looked up in the trees, could not see anything. Then there, on an overhanging branch, OMG, a large bee colony hanging down.

If it fell on my head, I would not be covered in bees, I would be covered in honey and bees. Not good.

The colony is hanging very precariously, hanging from two branches, which are independent of each other, and moving independently of each other.

The pieces of honeycomb must have not long fallen, as I noticed when I had finished what I was doing in the garden, there was only a handful of bees left. They must have been scavenging the honey out of the fallen honeycomb.

What to do with the honeycomb?

When I was in Istanbul, I noticed on the first evening what I thought was cake. Next morning when I came down to breakfast I saw that it was a large block of honeycomb with honey oozing out onto the plate. People cut chunks off to eat for breakfast.

What to do with the colony?

Bees are dying off. This colony is thriving. They would make ideal breeding stock. I will have to see if I can find any interested bee keepers who would be interested in a colony of bees.

A friend used to keep bees, but all his bees died off. I see a bee keeper at Guildford farmers market, but will not see her until Tuesday of next week (first Tuesday of the month). Locally monks keep bees, or at least they used to, but they are a miserable bunch.

Early in the spring, I had big fat colourful bumblebees in my garden. Never before a colony of bees. Next thing I will have bears climbing the tree after the honey.

Synchronicty: This morning I had an e-mail inviting me to go on a bee walk!

Slowly slowly slowly the long grass gets cut

cutting the long grass in the garden

Down on my hands and knees, slowly, slowly, slowly the long grass gets cut. Sometimes a few feet, sometimes several feet.

Today was a good day, ten feet or more, though hard work when 24C or more and rising. By mid-afternoon, 29C, maybe 30C. Luckily I was in the shade and their was a strong breeze blowing.

Usually I mix long grass cutting with other work in the garden, variety makes it less tiring, but today only long grass cutting.

Hard work. The more I cut, the more grass to then be mowed.

It takes at least two passes. Cut the long grass one day, then the next day or following days, cut what looks like a roughly mown meadow, then can be mown, though still hard work. Once mown a few times, relatively easy work with the lawn mower.

The long grass gets piled up on the compost heap. One reason for cutting a little every day, apart from hard work, is it gives the compost heap time to digest, and can be mixed with garden waste, household waste and paper.

Along the top, pieces of bramble which help to hold it together, though it seems to manage well enough without.

Blackcurrants in the garden from the brambles. Hazel nuts on the hazel bushes, though I do not think I will get to eat any as every day squirrels come along and steal them.

Sweetcorn is growing, as are tomato plants, but neither are doing very well.

There were peas and broad beans, but these got smothered by weeds. Runner beans got eaten by slugs and snails.

Patches in the grass. I keep sowing grass seed, but either poor quality grass seed or eaten by the fat pigeons, as I never see any grass appearing.

Ant attack

Why is it that ants all appear out of the ground at the same same?

The answer I know not, but today was the day. They were appearing out of the ground in my garden. I went for a walk, sat by a pond, but not for long when I realised it was teeming with ants.

As a child in Skegness on the Lincolnshire East Coast it was the last two weeks in August. In the evening everywhere ants would be coming up out of the pavements.

Whether a different location, further south, or maybe yet another sign of global warming.

Back home, I find I was under ant attack, only in the house, therefore serious.

This happened once a few years ago, and was very easy to deal with. The ants had found overripe fruit sitting waiting for disposal on the compost heap and had decided it was theirs. The solution appeared to be simple, pick up the fruit and dispose of on the compost heap. Only the ants still kept coming. I then realised they were following a trail they had laid down. Careful removal of their trail, left confused ants, and eventually they dispersed.

Today though was a different problem. They were not entering the house in search of overripe fruit, they were coming up out of the ground. A suspended floor I could understand, but this lot were coming up out of a solid floor, or from a solid wall. Chemical attack was out of the question. In the end I resorted to boiling water, which did the trick. I also poured it down the woodwork of a door frame. In the process I discovered a novel way of cleaning painted woodwork.

Last year I had a wasps nest in the garden at the side of the lawn. I saw the queen wasp arrive and thought nothing of it. A few wasps coming out of the ground, but before long an ever growing number and I was in their flight path.

I had what I thought was a brilliant idea. I will flood them out. I filled a watering can and poured it into the entrance of their nest. Out came a swarm of wasps, I was badly stung and ended up in hospital. I was actually only stung by a few wasps, but that was enough, it could have been far worse.

What next? Armed with a can of very powerful wasp destroyer, but how to deliver, as if I annoyed them again, I was the one going to come off worse.

In the end, a truce, I left them alone and they left me alone. In the autumn, as I expected, they all died off.

Clearing the undergrowth

clearing the undergrowth

grass yet to be cut

Grass has been cut on hands and knees with a pair of garden shears, then mowed. Now for the last couple of days a start has been made on clearing the undergrowth.

• Hard work in the garden
• More hard work in the garden

Today the first hot day, maybe 28C, maybe will hit 30C.

It is a shock when you learn that people who do not have the appearance of being fat or overweight, have a large amount of internal fat.

• The Men Who Made Us Fat: Are you TOFI?
• The Men Who Made Us Fat (1 of 3)

On You and Yours lunchtime today, the need for 22 minutes of exercise every day. Suggestions please on how to?

Try half an hour or more working in the garden.

For two and a half weeks, every morning one to two hours in the garden.

• Hard work in the garden
• More hard work in the garden

Try walking and cycling, not use a car. Go for walks in the countryside.

• Reconnecting with nature

The last few evenings I have been able to enjoy the spoils of my labour, sit in the garden reading The Fire, sequel to The Eight. Peaceful and quiet as though sitting in a woodland clearing.