A Look Over the Bay

My long absence from the garden earlier this year, I was away from the New Year until the beginning of March, left me with several casualties.  Many of them were expected but some were quite surprising, succumbing to the particularly harsh winter that this part of France endured. One such casualty was my Bay tree. I planted this little tree during early summer in 2009 and had looked after it fairly well throughout the hot dry spell that followed. When the time came to leave for the UK, I was happy to think that with the colder wet weather of winter, the tree would fare ok on it's own. Imagine my sadness, when, after my return, I found the view opposite waiting for me.   The cold had been accompanied by a very harsh  dry spell, and without me tending it, it suffered from drought. In desperation, and somewhat without hope, I dripped water around the roots for a whole day and then left it to tend  for itself

Imagine my pleasure, the other day when a closer examination showed some new growth bursting forth.  I'll look after it better throughout this summer and hopefully, I won't be away for so long over the next winter. Well done, little bay tree