Sports bulletin

Here's an update on progress in the garden, first mentioned in this post.

In an Easter weekend where there has been any number of sporting fixtures, I can report that the score is...

Docks 14, Willows 44

On the face of it, this is a great result. Although, as with most things, the devil is in the detail.

Today's planting pattern

In team news, a third row of Willow, with the addition of a few scallops, took up the last 44 of our cuttings. So more sticks will be at the top of our next shopping list.

To add a little gloss to the performance, some of the first two rows are beginning to sprout, which is most pleasing. Quite whether all of the previous 160 will burst into bud is as yet unknown.

Excuse the rubbish photos, the sun was so bright, I couldn't see the phone screen properly. Add to that dock-digging fatigue and it was a miracle they are the right way up at all. Where's the physio?!

Ready...

steady...

grow!

So far, so rosy, eh?

Hmmmm, the '14' referred to the number of bags of Dock roots dug up and ready to be shipped off to the recycling facility. I just hope that the council's industrial composting procedure can cope with perennial weeds.

Even a close friend, who is even more passionate about environmentally-friendly and wildlife gardening than we are, has quietly taken me to one side and whispered in my ear, "You do know these are Docks, don't you? You will have to resort to Captain Chemical to shift them."

I admitted that I did know this, but was not yet ready to accept the ultimate truth. For if I keep digging them up, season after season, I will eventually win the battle. But only if I live long enough to see the game through!