Fickle spring

 Our spring weather has been pretty crazy. One minute it's calm and clear, the next it's blowing a gale. We've had several wind storms during spring that have caused a lot of damage around the country.

 Last weekend was Labour Weekend, the traditional time to get your garden sorted out for the coming season. I had many jobs on my list. I started early in the morning and got a few things done, like emptying the glasshouse and hosing and scrubbing it out. Chasing out the spiders was the most horrifying part! My next job was laying out some weed mat, but by that time the gale had arrived and the wind would literally snatch things out of my hands and tangle or snap them before my very eyes. So dealing with weed mat was out of the question. I did manage to pot up some chillis and capsicums but I had to do that inside the glasshouse so they weren't snapped at the stem.

 So all in all, not a very satisfying weekend. The wind did drop on Monday and I managed to get my weed mat down, much later than anticipated. There's still a list of chores to carry over to next weekend, but that's usually the case anyway!

 Here's my potager with the chives in bloom. They line the main pathway with their nodding purple heads. There is also flowering calendula (soon to be pulled out to make room for other things) and the lavender lining the front path is covered in buds. It looks like there's a cross at the back of the garden but that's just my 'Potager' sign which blew down in the wind. It looked great on the arch but every time it was windy the sign would swing back and forth and make the arch wobble, so I think it's better on the fence, at least until I find a better home for it.

 I had this old pair of gumboots that have perished and started to crack. I was about to bin them, but I suddenly wondered what they would look like planted up and half hidden in the garden. I have to say, I quite like the look! They are planted with some pink mini carnations which only flower for a week or two in November, but I think the spiky upright foliage is interesting poking out of the top of the boots. I think they'll look great next to the delphiniums when they start to flower.

Finally a brief rose update. This year's winner and first to flower is this little white rose I took as a cutting last summer. I really wasn't expecting a flower so soon so I'm very pleased! I don't know the name as it comes from the garden of a friend who's renting, so I've called it Abbey's Rose. It has white flowers and luminous red hips in autumn. My other roses aren't far behind, but I do find it funny that they were beaten by a less than one year old cutting!