Spring jobs

Spring has finally arrived to the north! That means the cottage season is officially opened. In this post, there are photos from the past month. In autumn, I'd started clearing the front garden, so I decided to try to finish it - and maybe make it look nice, too!  

When I came to the cottage the first time, I noticed my neighbours had raked under their hedges and made them look really nice and neat. I sort of felt pressured to do the same 😄 So that's where I started. I just raked the ground on the outside, getting rid of dry leaves and twigs. I also trimmed the lilacs in a couple of places, where they were clearly taller than the rest of the hedge. There were some volunteering roses growing in between, which I removed. 

It was a fairly quick job, and the results looked good. Or at least as good as anything can look in early spring, when nothing is growing yet! I had a chat with my neighbour the farmer, and learned that the hedge is apparently not technically on my property. There were some old corner stones that seem to prove him right. Apparently, the lilac hedge has just organically spread onto the road over time. I don't think he meant anything by it, it was more like an observation. I've been planning to have a ditch dug between the road and my property, I just hope that's going to be possible if it's technically not my side. This lilac hedge will most likely be removed eventually, but it's good to have in the meantime!

The next time I came to the cottage, the snow was back with a vengeance! That put a pause in my garden work. I decided to clean up a bit inside, instead, and try out a new layout in the kitchen. The wooden sofa in its previous place, was mostly a place to dump all my stuff. I decided to try it in front of the window instead, to create more of a sitting corner. I think I quite like it! I wanted a place where you could sit and look at the fire. Of course, this is not finished or anything, I'm just planning the big strokes for the time being.

The "kitchen" I dragged into the spot where the sofa was before, to see if the kitchen layout I had in my head would work. I'm thinking to have all kitcheny things on one wall, like the refrigerator and washing table. I'm not planning to put in a modern kitchen, but I think this layout will work well nevertheless. I also went through some old interior magazines from the early 2000s, and took them to recycling. Those had not aged too well 😉

The next time I came to the cottage, I did some chainsaw work. At this time of year, it's so easy to see old stumps sticking out of the ground. And even more satisfying to see them gone! I also continued work on cutting down the trees and bushes at the property line, which I had started in the autumn.

Here's what it looked like before, with the old lilacs sprouting about and the ground covered in debris.

And here's what it looked like the week after! I'm so used to doing work that kind of disappears after you've done it, because there's still so much to do. But in this case, you can really see the progress. So much green! 

I cut down all the tall lilacs, even if it feels a bit sad. They were too tall and their canopies were hurting the apple trees. All of them were growing at a low angle and a lot of them had suffered from too much moisture. 

I also raked the ground clean and gathered the organic debris under the apple trees to start creating flower beds. I have this vision of creating a grid of flower beds, with apple trees as a canopy layer. The existing trees (and the ones I had to cut down due to rot) seemed to line up with my plan pretty much perfectly. So weird how that happens sometime! I've had this vision for like a decade so it's pretty cool how it's working out.

You can really see where I had already raked the ground, because only there had flowers grown. I think they're snowdrops, maybe?

Here's a closeup. I've no idea what the bigger plant is yet 🤔

This was the view towards the corner before...

...and after! I think the flower beds bring some needed structure to the landscape. The branches are just a temporary measure, to help me sketch out the placement. 

This was the view last weekend, before...

...and after! I got one more flowerbed filled with leaves. The back part, that I did first, is looking green - I'm hoping that the rest will have started to green up when I visit next time.

After I'd cut down the lilacs and other trees in the front yard, you could really see the mound where the lilac hedge has been. I was surprised it was such a straight line as it looked like such a mess when they were still up. Before I started cutting things down, the garden was really sheltered. You could not see out to the neighbours yard or see into mine. Honestly, I was a bit shocked how open it got and I definitely want the privacy back as soon as possible.

I happened to read an article on planting and maintaining hedges. It said that at some point a hedge gets so old that the only option is to cut it down completely and let it regrow. So maybe I've instinctually done the right thing here... I will add some compost and fertiliser to the old hedge mound to help it regrow. I have a feeling it will, as I've already cut down literally thousands of new shoots in the yard. 

I'm also itching to choose plants for my new flower beds! But I have to pace myself, as there's still some jobs to do first, such as trimming dead branches off the trees. I wouldn't want them to squash my new flowers 😊