Some Lensbaby indulgence, and...

I took out the Lensbaby today! I just love this lens. There's also a few taken with the 50mm and the 100mm macro. Guess which is which ;P

Some cherry tomato seedlings sprouted

And lettuce

I still need to plant these! I have no idea where to put the lavender...
Wheat will be the herb garden is now a mountain of soil.

These guys! We left a large pallet on the grass, and ladybugs seem to have
made a home out of it. At any time there are lots of them around!

At some point the strawberry bed got weeded and bedded with
the chippered branches from the willow tree we coppiced

I just like this overexposed blurry mess

White muscari waiting to be planted, I wanted white ones for a long time!

Some tulips from some bulb mix and roses

Louvre hyacinth

Hawthorn <3

Fern fronds

Fern fronds

More of the tulip-like-whatevers

Ginesta <3

A blue snail! apparently these eat the eggs of other snails (and other things).
Oxychilus alliarius. "Garlic snail", I think. 

We've been out in the garden most of the day (at it has been raining on and off all day also). Pim digging the terrace up, me just... what have I done today really? I don't know where the hours went, only planted the hazelnuts and the Japanese quince, and by the end and Pim had to help me dig and bring in soil and chips.

Been walking up and down a lot for sure, trying to visualise the "landscape", the view from every corner, thinking how to lay down the paths and beds and masses of plants and all that.

Since I wanted to plant the new bushes at the back, in what will be "room" 3 of the garden, I finally stopped wandering around, grabbed the hose and tried to lay down paths for that area before I decided where to plant.

I want to divide the garden in three chunks, since it is narrow and super long (5 to 8 metres wide by about 40 long). The first part will be the terrace (eventually we will build a conservatory over part of this large terrace) and kitchen (herb) garden. Second, orchard and vegetable garden. Third, berry orchard and shady fern corner.

So anyhow, I had a huge pile of old branches just where I wanted to plant the bushes, so I had to untangle the partially rotted mess and move it elsewhere (close to the hedge which will be a long term project anyway). That took me a while. As I worked I also picked out the bucketful of snails that were resting there and placed them elsewhere.

So finally the grass gor removed, the bushes got planted, the soil topped, the chips spread. By then it was pouring so I snapped a quick one with my phone:

Incredibly impressive eh? looking at the big picture is still quite deflating in my garden... these guys have a long way to go though. I posted about it yesterday, but I'll mention again the cultivars:
Corylus avellana 'Webb's prize cob', Chaenomeles × superba 'Jet Trail' (stays 1m high and 1m wide with a ground cover habit).

I have a pretty good idea of what I want and where, but the Japanese quince was a total impulse buy in the garden center. I am so glad though. This guy was totally unknown to me, but white blossoms attractive to bees, perfumed fruits, gnarly branches, cute ground cover habit, limited height and spread: I'm in! It is already pretty it's infancy. When I google I see mostly bright red blossomed varieties, that's a bit too much for me, but I've added "geisha girl" to my Pinterest plant board, those peachy blossoms are very tempting. I don't think I have the space for another, larger one even, though. Perhaps trained against a wall...