Snail racing - yee hah!

Not exactly gardening, but for our half hour in the garden today we decided to do some snail racing!

It didn't start too well - we couldn't find any snails, which I guess is a good thing. Then I found a massive one for me to race, which would have definitely won, had I not left it carelessly in the path of my chubby heavy-booted two year old.

Blood and guts were oozing out. I felt awful, and quickly decided not to seize the opportunity for a fascinating biology lesson. C was already being squeamish about touching the slimy snails.

We then found two little ones. So little, in fact, that the only stickers we had to mark them were actually bigger than the snails.

They didn't exactly get off to a flying start, with one staying tucked up inside, perhaps deterred by the bright pink boots. Thankfully, the green smiley one decided to hedge his bets in search of freshly picked young lettuce leaves. And then the magic happened: the girls came eyeball to tentacled eyeball with one of the most fascinating animals in the garden.

Not a close fought race, but exhilarating nonetheless. The snail slayer then let one slither up her arm...

I realised that I love snails, always have, but I've been giving the children the wrong message. These amazing creatures get lobbed over the fence, with me chanting "Slugs and snails are bad, worms and ladybirds are good." But actually they're all part of the amazing ecosystem that is our little garden.

The race was inspired by 101 Things for kids to do outside, a brilliant book written by the author of my favourite blog, Little Green Fingers. Can't wait to see what's on the next page...

April - from apple espaliers to grassy bouquets

The garden and surrounding woods are looking fabulous, even the bits still covered with leaves and weeds. It's such a lovely time of year, and one of my apple espaliers is looking particularly special.

The other one has far less blossom, so we'll see how many apples develop on each. The box hedge is growing like mad too, unlike poor Monty Don's in Gardener's World. Box blight is not fun when your whole garden is framed with the stuff.

My funny wood shed patch is filling out nicely. Luckily the comfrey is coming back well after I thought I'd lost it during the drought last summer.

The raised beds are waiting expectantly... the leeks will soon be all gone, and C now has the front left bed for flowers as well as fruit and veg. She says it's OK to have veg as long as they flower!

And here's some of what's going in next... 

I feel more confident this year, but the addition of a million pink and purple flowers for C are not helping things! Especially when she's keen to help sometimes, but not others. Today we went for a walk after the much-needed rain had stopped, and she picked this lovely bouquet, taking a real interest in grasses for the first time! 

Happy Easter everyone! 

How much gardening does a princess do?

Last autumn I had a three-year-old witch as my Head Gardener, who was brilliant at stirring buckets of leaves. Now I have a four-year-old princess who excels at wafting around with bouquets of clippings. And my Chief Digger is a very enthusiastic 21 month old.

We finally got around to clearing a space for our family apple tree. C held it 'straight' while R and I back filled with soil, leaf mould and well rotted poo. It was a lovely way to start our exciting gardening year.

We've been planting lots of seeds, clearing the dead leaves and weeds, and generally enjoying being out in the sunshine together. C has her own raised bed now, which she has already started planting with flowers and strawberries, and she's got plans for some sparkly crown plant tags, perhaps the subject of our next blog.

Happy spring everyone! It's nice to be back.