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Wordless Wednesday - hoverfly on Eschscholzia

August 22, 2012

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This is a handsome lawnmower. Stihl have until fairly recently made and sold lawnmowers under the trade name 'Viking', now they started branding them in the Stihl orange and white that we know and love.

This mower has a cutting width of 37cm. This is a good width for my lawns, not too small to mean it takes me a long time, but nippy enough that I can mow around things where I need to. It is quiet compared to non-rechargeable mowers and weighs in at 16 kg, which is quite light.

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Let me rewind to 2007 when the front garden looked like this:
I declared this front garden boring and decided a knot garden was what it needed. I sometimes wonder if I should have left well alone. Yes it was dull, but the front garden seems to have been a constant battle I have never really won. I could just have mown it once a fortnight, yet that was just not what I wanted to do.
The garden was laid out as tiny box cuttings in the spring of 2008; by 2013 it looked like this. Yes even then the lavender hedge was a bit sprawly but it had a lot to redeem itself with. In the summer it was always alive with bees and butterflies and it was a joy to brush past as the scent would be released. I did love the lavender edge.
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For several years now when it gets to hellebore time, people have said to me that I need to visit Ashwood Nurseries which is just the other side of Birmingham from me in Kingswinford. I agree with them that I need to visit and say it is on the list. The visit just never seemed to happen. This year the conversations went as above but this year a plan was hatched. Alongwith gardening chum we bought tickets for a nursery tour. Now it was definite, the visit would happen.
Kingswinford is about an hour and twenty minutes from home, so within reasonable bounds for a nursery worth visiting. We arrived in time to have lunch at the most organised café I think I have ever visited. I have to mention the staff and service in the café as there were a lot of visitors on this day but they made sure we were efficiently seated and served. I had a very nice slice of quiche, all was good. Then we set off for the tour. The tour was led by Howard Drury of whom, it is fair to say, knows a thing or…

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