The Mole Man cameth...

... and the Mole Man tooketh away.

Towards the end of the last entry, I had noticed that the new lawn was lifting along the edge.

Checking a little more carefully, I found that there was a tunnel all round the edge of the lawn and that the plants which were falling out of the soil and for which i had accused Marea of 'just sticking them in' and not planting them properly, had been undermined by the digging of a mole.

Raising the edge of the lawn, it became clear that, unless we solved the problem, the mole would burrow under the lawn and areas would drop making the whole thing unlevel and hazardous. I rang the Mole Man.

He came, set two traps under the soil and left, telling me to watch out for the tell-tale lifting of a tiny lever showing that the trap had been sprung. Well, he hadn't been gone more than an hour when I was showing Marea where the traps were and I noticed the lifted lever. Extracting the trap, we found a large male mole which the Mole Man came and took away. We now have to wait a few days to see if there are any others, but, since he was a male, this is apprently unlikely.

The new planting and THAT lawn

Now, Molly, the Springer Spaniel, is a wonderful dog; friendly, caring and doesn't run off or escape from the garden. The only trouble is; she can be a bit of a bitch and that's unfortunate. It means we can never manage to keep a decent lawn. Even if I tried re-turfing it, the result would be the same; a tatty, muddy (at times), mouldy (in places), moss infested mess.

So we decided to take drastic action.

We moved most of the plants from the bottom bed where they don't get enough light, dug over the area, fed it with farmyard manure and planted shrubs.

In case you can't read the names, they are: (L-R) New Zealand Flax, Amelanchier, Buddleia Davidii, Cornus Sanguinea (Midwinter Fire), Philadelphus Aureus, Pieris (Forest Flame), Olearia Haastii, Cornus Alba Sibirica, Nandina (Firestorm) and, hidden off to the right, Jasminum Stephanense. (I think it's obvious from the varietal names what we're trying to achieve. The next thing to do, after the nesting season, is to cut the laurel hedge hard back to let in much more light.

Then we called in the suppliers to lay our new ARTIFICIAL lawn.

They stripped it, prepped it, laid a membrane to stop weeds and then laid what they call 'the carpet'.

After a lot of sanding (kiln dried) and brushing, this is how it looks.

I'm very pleased; apparently the dog will love it because it stays warm. It's great to sit on because it dries quickly and doesn't feel damp. But, most of all, and best of all: I WILL NEVER HAVE TO WASTE MY TIME MOWING IT - EVER AGAIN.

Alarums and Excursions

On Monday night, as I was dozing in front of a crime drama on the TV, we were suddenly aroused by bright lights, police sirens and the 'whap whap whap' of incoming helicopters. I stepped out into the garden to be confronted with these bright lights, getting closer and closer.



Not a Close Encounter of the Third Kind, just the police helicopter seeing who I was. We deduced that one of the elderly residents had gone missing from the local rest home. This, on a night when the temperature was about -2 degrees.





All the hedgerows were searched and all the gardens viewed from above, and then, after about an hour, all went quiet. The next morning we got a polite little note from the rest home saying their resident had been found safe and warm, so All's Well that Ends Well.

"The Rain it Raineth Every Day"

Since then, the weather has got much worse; the rain falls incessantly and it's cold, too. That'll teach us to think that Spring is on the way.




Mind you, the hedgerows still look good.



Though the same can't be said for the 'lawn'



And the Lenten Roses need to get a shift on if they're to make it in time.




So ends this slightly Shakespearean themed entry.