Spring tidy-up

What a lovely blustery day it was today- and 10 Degrees Centigrade where we are.
Perfect weather for some early gardening.
I spent the afternoon tidying the flowerbeds.This is what I started with.

Pretty much full of old dead annuals.I have heard this is good to leave this on during winter as protection.So that is why I did it.The fact that I was too busy blogging in October was neither here nor there, hahaha.
Anyway it was nice to get it cleared .

I am so looking forward to the Mr Fothergill's seed catalogue.I plan to grow a different annual that I have never grown before , so that should be fun.This is something Vita Sachville-West recommended, and I could not agree more. It makes it just so exciting.

Last year I grew Nicotiana Sylvestris, and also sunflowers for the first time ,and it was fantastic.

 The Nicotiana Sylvestris is the flower in the right top corner.Absolutely amazing.I always think it's just fantastic , when you hold a couple of seeds in your hands, and a few months later, when you have planted the seeds, you look at a plant almost man-high.
You can see the obelisks in the picture at the top.They're wicker and not that weather-resistant.
Last year we went to the open day at Chisenbury Priory - a really inspiring and fabulous garden.Only open one day a year, for charity, but I would recommend it to anyone if you are ever in the area.The description of the garden is pretty accurate :
" Medieval Priory with Queen Anne face and early C17 rear (not open) in middle of 5-acre garden on chalk. Mature garden with fine trees within clump and flint walls, herbaceous borders, shrubs, roses. Moisture-loving plants along mill leat, carp pond, orchard and wild garden, many unusual plants. Front borders redesigned in 2009 by Tom Stuart-Smith"
He did a pretty good job there, and the statues and urns are fabulous.

They had some pretty good obelisks there.

I quite liked this one- they had them dotted all over the place.What do they care, I guess a dozen more or less makes no difference to them.I suppose you could say they had quite a decent budget.

I spoke to the lucky lady who owned the garden and asked where she got hold of the obelisks, and she said vaguely " O, I just got them off the internet somewhere".She was lovely by the way.
So I did a bit of hunting around and found what I was looking for right here.

It was going to be my birthday present - for - last year AND this year, haha.
So I am counting on this one, instead of the wicker ones.
Well, what are you planning for this year ? Have you already worked your way through the seed-catalogues ?? Or sown your first annual's yet ??
I look foward to all your comments.

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Maud and Millie

If you want to keep up with Maud and Millie's latest adventures, you can read all about it here.