This week I have done absolutely no gardening at all and feel terrible about it. There have been client meetings, administration tasks for the business and general sorting in both my personal and business life there leaving no time. As I gaze outside I can see my messy courtyard poised to be re-built and planted and walking through my garden briefly with my wife was despondent about the general mess of it all. 

As a reward for hours and hours of admin I have promised myself that I will start work on the Courtyard in March; it will be our place for eating, relaxing and will be planted with some herbs, vegetables, general cottage garden herbaceous planting with a backdrop of a brick wall with lime mortar,Topiary and Pleached trees.....now I have made this promise I must keep it otherwise I fear a bout of lethargy will set in!

Wet, wet wet, without sounding like a typical Brit moaning about the weather it really does dominate everything. The recent snow which suddenly melted into already saturated grounds, with a 10 degree rise temperature has meant more local flooding and difficult conditions for gardeners and of course my business. Wherever we work and wherever I tread in my garden my feet sink onto the ground leaving a trail of muddy footprints and I have often thought how terrible it would have been for those unfortunate enough to have experienced war in these conditions. I intend to make things easy in my garden (at least when it comes to wet conditions) by adding a thick layer of organic mulch which will be dragged down into the soil by worms and alike which will both aerate the earth and stop the clay sticking together, therefore making it free draining. As for the lawn fork add sand in the holes which will have the same net effect. 

In my garden nothing is looking particularly good right now but in my clients its a real mix with my favorite bed being full of hellebores which even on a dark rainy day seem to somehow shine. We have also began to sow sweet peas (late I know) but I am  sure they will be fine this year albeit a little late.

Lastly our bricks arrived for the courtyard and with an off road fork lift, the skill of Tony and my traffic direction (sorry to anyone inconvenienced) 10 pallets of 5000 bricks where moved and stored in our neighbors garden ready for laying when the weather gets better - I excited by the thought of this project although a little apprehensive as there is so much to do and we are so busy I have nobody spare to help in the construction.