It has been such a long time since I last posted an article on Springhill, but here I am with a small update. It has been unprecedented times and it made travel and garden visits less obvious. But that doesn’t mean our garden had less attention. I had quite some plans for the garden, but because of homeworking we realized that a bit more space would be quite welcome. So we are going to extend the house. As you can already guess this will have a big impact on the garden and will have to make me to rethink large parts of it.

Until these plans will become reality I focus on the upper part of the garden. Last few days I have been busy planting up part of the slope. This part of the garden is full sun, poor sand and lime soil and not much grew there spontaneously. So I planted this part up with plants that like dry, free-draining conditions. Lavender, Rosemary, Euphorbia, Salvia… just the name a few of the plants. This part will also be more of a bufferzone between the wildflower meadow and the more tamed prairie garden next to the pond. In the future some more plants from around the terrace will move to this zone.


Another little project we did is moving the compost zone from rather the middle of the garden, up behind the shed. I have no idea why we didn’t do this before. It was most of the time in full sight and not the most pretty things to look at. In this zone I extended the berry garden and it will become more of a forest kind of garden. The beech hedge plants were repurposed in other zones of the garden, so nothing got lost.


And of course I also already started the sowing and repotting for the vegetable garden. This year I will plant 12 varieties of tomatoes of which almost are new varieties that I haven’t grown before.






Soon I will write and show some more of the garden when he gets back into shape, but I wanted to give you a sign of life. How are you all doing and what are your garden plans ? Let me know in the comments…
April 6, 2021 at 16:58
It’s good to hear from you again, Stefan, and to read of your garden work. You are fortunate to have a big garden and the extension to the house will not rob you of too much space. As ever, you have many projects in hand, always making plans and progress.
We don’t work from home; we work at home! As we are both retired, work is of our own choice and the restrictions imposed by the Covid pandemic has meant we have spent more and more time at home and in the garden. We have made no great changes, a few here and there – a new path to the back of a deep bed of hydrangeas but otherwise just the usual cycle of garden bits and pieces.
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April 6, 2021 at 17:01
I have to say circumstances made it not always ideal to keep up motivation. But with spring on the horizon (snowing like crazy today though) I feel it all back coming 😊
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April 6, 2021 at 17:04
Yes, brighter days are always a help. .No snow here but we had a bitterly cold breeze this morning and didn’t go back to the garden in the afternoon.
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April 6, 2021 at 19:04
Well done dear friend! Today Little snow in Tuscany, too. Hugs
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April 6, 2021 at 20:08
Nice to hear from you Silvia.. we were recently still thinking again of our lovely stay in Tuscany. I hope you are doing well and hopefully it will warm up soon 🙂
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April 6, 2021 at 21:25
We all are safe and healthy, thanks ❤️
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April 7, 2021 at 07:04
Looks lovely Stefan. You’ve done a great job in such a short time. I’m jealous of your goldfinches and bullfinches. Did you know that goldfinches are particularly fond of Nijger seeds? You need a special feeder though. I tried them in my garden but we don’t get goldfinches in the area. You may have better luck. Love your fritillary photo too!
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April 7, 2021 at 10:00
The goldfinches were here almost every day during winter, always 5 of them. The Bullfinches I have only seen 3 times. This year we also had a few visits of the Hawfinch, which I really liked a lot 🙂
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April 7, 2021 at 14:39
Wonderful. I have never seen a hawfinch.
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April 7, 2021 at 09:26
Love the fritillary and the tulips in the snow. Snowy here too! The slope will be a nice backdrop for the garden now you have planted it up. I hope to start planting a new bed next week if the weather improves. Good to hear from you!
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April 7, 2021 at 09:52
Thanks 🙂 Oh creating a new bed is always exciting. Yes I wasn’t expecting all this snow now…I was sowing things outside last week 🙂
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