I’m always in two minds as to whether we should continue to plant up the tree pits in front of the station building. Given that they house trees – two Rowan trees and a new small elm variety – the environment can be rather difficult: the trees need a lot of water and in the summer, the tree pits dry out easily. But bright flowers look so pretty in the tree pits, it’s hard to resist.

We’ve now had frost and then plenty of rain so the soil is fairly friable. We had planted some cyclamen in the right side tree pit but several got dug up – I reckon dogs, though there are local foxes too. I rescued the plants and they recovered well in my greenhouse. We bought some more cyclamen and some bright yellow daffodil bulbs in flower.

So we’ve now been able to plant up all three tree pits and bring a bit more colour to the station forecourt. A dad and his daughter stopped to tell us how much they appreciated the colourful flowers, which they passed every day on the way to the school. That makes it all worthwhile …