Planting and digging - a route to recovery

In the winter days when I was feeling particularly alienated by the quiet countryside I picked up a spade and dug.  It was those dark days of February and March.  My dearest Uncle Ed’s favorite time of year, he enjoyed it stillness and the silhouettes of dark trees against pale skies.  I found it challenging not knowing how to navigate my feelings with little to distract but the heavy soil and sharp spade helped.

Firstly, I planted a new strip of native hedge, staggering the saplings 30 cm apart.  I spent a long time pondering where I should place the hawthorn, blackthorn, hornbeam, hazel and then few plants of sweet chestnut and dogwood.  I did a mixture of clustering and scattering.  The hedge will add blossom and pollen and hopefully gap up an area between the two meadows.  I have since spent many hours there with Queenie watering to ensure they settle and root.

Uninspiring photo of my new piece of hedge...

Then my second planting project was an experimental strip in the walled garden.  We had to cover it with old carpet to kill off old sproutings then Mr McGregor hired a small rotovator.  A hulking piece of equipment that needed steading and jamming into the earth, an Oxen would have been useful to guide it.  I then dug it over and broke up clods, removed stones and dug some more.  Finally I had a patch that could be described as a ‘seed bed.’

I ordered a mix of seeds for ‘pollinators’ and then added two other small packets I had lying around – one from plant heritage and the other good for butterflies.   All native plants but I didn’t actually make a list of expected species.  I thought I was going to ...but have fallen below my own expectations.  Oh dear not the first time. I now have to identify them all when they appear.  The question is will I use my weighty Stace botanical key or a pictorial cheat’s guide?