Sometimes you plan a great, fun Easter egg hunt and tree planting day and then the weather has other ideas. Ones which involve cold, northerly winds, rapidly dropping temperatures and blizzard conditions.
And at that point you just have to bow out gracefully and admit defeat - but not before 'heeling in' 225 native hedge plants in the snow that you had planned to plant with the dozens of willing volunteers who would be arriving, eagerly, at the gate.
At one point this morning the sun was shining and the sky was blue, but I never got any photographic evidence as I was too busy digging at the time. It was still cold, but we've had worse and my hopes were raised that the 'free cakes, chocolate and hot drinks' might bring some people in after all, if only to munch rather than mulch.
But the only people to come out of the cold and into the polytunnel were Ian and Alan (the former doing more film and audio recording than digging, but the moral support was welcome).
Lavender and Jack were out ready to greet the crowds, as they love a bit of attention (especially from the garden's smaller visitors) but they gave up after about an hour and sulked in their house instead.
We've got a mixed hedge pack from North East Community Forests, which contains mainly hawthorn, but with blackthorn, field maple, guelder rose, crab apple and holly mixed in there too. It's hard to see from this photo, so I'll take a better one when we've got more in and the light is better. I also need to knock in the canes a bit and pop on the rabbit guards.
Alan took pity on me and dug the trenches while I planted, and we only just managed to start the double hedge part when the blizzard really took hold.
So, it was back to the polytunnel for a warming drink and some cake before we heeled them in. This involves loosely planting in a fairly shallow trench all together, to prevent them from drying out while you wait for a better time to plant them. I'd take a rough guess on that not being any time soon....
Sunday Update: And here's the same scene 24 hours later and distinctly less wintry looking (better view of the hedge, as well as more hedge as David with a mattock made the job much easier).
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