A new lawn!

Thursday 9th April
I went up to collect my tree from the nursery this morning, courtesy of my very kind neighbours. It's a container grown Jonagored eating apple. It looks in great shape with lots of blossom. Who knows, maybe there will be some fruit this year. Then it was straight down to the plot to plant it. I'd already picked out a suitable place yesterday.

Raking the soil ready for the grass seed was hard work at first, but I soon got into the swing of it. Peter turned up soon after I started as he wanted to attach the glass lid of the cold frame. It was a grey, blustery day although not cold and we struggled to light the primus stove today.

Peter persuaded me to ask Bob two plots down if we could borrow his roller. I had seen his friend using it yesterday, so I knew they had one. Bob said that was fine, just keep it as long as I needed it. Peter did a bit of rolling for me while I continued with the raking. The earth soon started to look fine enough for the seed and fairly level. Then came the exciting bit - sprinkling the seed. As soon as I started sowing the seed, I could hear the birds telling all their friends - Come on chaps, dinner's out! I The last time I can remember laying a lawn was when we lived in Scotland, over 30 years ago. Although come to think of it we must have laid one at the house we bought in Canada. Anyway it was such a long time ago that I had to read the instructions on the packet to make sure I was doing it right. I had watered the ground before sowing the seed, then I raked the seed in gently. Finally, I put the roller over one more time. Then I made some bird scarers - just some old canes with plastic strips attached. I wrapped string around the canes and tied more plastic onto the string. That should keep the little dears away. You can see the three loganberries in this last picture