A dry, frost-free week meant we are finally making real headway on the ‘to-do’ list. Although there is time left before we open, walking past endless outstanding jobs leaves me in an almost continuous state of low-level stress.

So, a good week takes the pressure off a bit. Janet and Tracey have all but finished cleaning up the plants outside and last week’s 1000 bare root plant delivery is potted up and labelled. Jools finished the first clearance of the new veg plot – we’re now ready to start marking out and making beds. Peter tackled the painstaking task of clearing the scree garden – the worst job is tidying up the huge and lethal Agave. Jools and I dug up the old herb bed and re-designed it and on Thursday Marilyn and I dug up and divided Geraniums from last year’s new beds. My new signs have arrived too, looking very fresh and bright. So wonderful progress all round.

In the garden the Petasites are in flower (pics tomorrow) and each evening a flock of greenfinches flits across the garden, all a twitter, ending up in the huge birch tree that straddles the boundary with next door.

Just as well I had a good week as Friday’s return to college for the dreaded Module G on Genetics, plant breeding and physiology was a shock to the system. Though there’s been plenty to learn in the other modules I’ve not found the content academically difficult. But this stuff is properly challenging. Interesting and revealing, but hard. I don’t think I’ll be doodling on the back row this term.

February 28, 2009