Hole in the wall, hole in the ground

Longthwaite,May 2012 and (below) 2013

Back after nearly two weeks in the Lake District.  Spring is even later up there than here, with many of the trees still bare; you can see the difference in the same photo shot taken a year apart!  Last year's weather was warm and sunny; this year was mostly damp and chilly.  The weather pattern continues to be that the sun is warm when it's out, but the wind is cold.  We had a couple of hailstorms, and there was light snow lying on the highest central fells one day, which you don't normally see in late May ....

Down here, the weather picture was the same but possibly with even heavier rain.  Some seed trays that I left out had the compost washed out of them.  This past weekend again had some lovely sunshine but with that rather fresh breeze; today has been miserably wet.  The forecast is for more of the same.

Custom-built hole in the wall

Before we went away, the tumbledown wall at the back of the vegetable garden was (very expertly) mended.  Since next door's ash tree has taken to leaning on it, rebuilding it as it was wasn't an option; so the tree now has its own custom-built hole-in-the-wall (with a little trellising inserted by the neighbours to keep their dog in!) so that it can lean without causing more damage (we hope).  The apple cordons are flowering on regardless; one job outstanding is to tie them up properly as they're lying rather flat at the moment (the stakes having been removed to allow access to the wall).  They've suffered remarkably little damage from having so much stone fall on them!

Another sort of hole appeared just before our departure: something small and probably furry had dug a hole at the bottom of the big ash tree at the end of the garden (fortunately without disturbing any of my new planting).  By the time we got back the hole had disappeared, but another has materialised alongside the brick edging of the 'hot' bed.  I wonder what's down there?  During our holiday we were entertained by the antics of two red squirrels on the peanut feeder, but whatever has dug these holes is a lot smaller and, I suspect, a lot less cute.

The tulips in the big pot

In my absence there hasn't been too much change in the garden.  The grass, both in the lawn and in the flowerbeds, has grown well (all that rain!), but the dandelion problem wasn't as great as I had feared; none seemed to have seeded and I was able to deadhead them before the damage was done.  The main flower change is that the tulips have come out nicely.  Down at the bottom of the garden, the grouping of 'Angelique', 'Uncle Tom' and 'Black Hero' in the big pot has lived up to expectations: the colours work well together and can be seen well from the house.  The perennials put into that pot to provide winter interest are recovering from their exposure to the east wind; the Heuchera and the Euphorbia myrsinites (the latter just peeping out in the picture) had been looking unhappy but are coming along quite well now.

The plants put into the bottom-of-the-garden bed seem to have settled in.  I'm thinking that they will need some more spring colour in there next year; the crocuses and Anemone blanda are too small to make a decent splash.  Some more tulips in there next year would be good - perhaps move the ones in the pot and see if they will come again next year?

Good value hellebores

The blue camassias have also flowered, and are nearly over.  Also on the way out at last are the hellebores; I dead-headed most of them before we went away but left the big one because it looks so good.  It has been flowering since well before Christmas; now that's what I call good value.

The birds, especially the blackbirds and the robin, seem glad to have us back; they're still feeding youngsters and come straight down when food is put out.  A thrush also visited today.  There are signs that the sparrowhawk has been about again: pigeon feathers, bits of another female pheasant and some brown feathers that suggest that the hawk has been in someone's chicken coop and brought a take-away in here to eat.  The magpies are also still here (bringing back unpleasant memories of seeing a crow raid a Lake District mistle thrush's nest). Just before we went away we spotted five swifts flying overhead; but there have been no signs of them here since, so they were probably en route for somewhere else.

The rain has topped up the water levels in the pond nicely.  After my last look in there I had feared that the wildlife had gone, but I see that there are water snails active in there, and a newt was sculling around on the bottom, so all is not lost after all.

Breakfast on the lawn

The weather actually improved for the early May Bank Holiday weekend; while Saturday wasn't anything special, we had pleasant sun on Sunday and on Monday, for the first time in years, we managed breakfast (and lunch) outside, enjoying the birdsong and the scent of the Osmanthus.  Admittedly a jumper was needed when the sun went behind a cloud, but that day and yesterday were lovely, warm, sunny spring days.  Of course it couldn't last, and today has been chilly with showers (and more of the same is forecast).

The bottom-of-the-garden border has been planted up, after a fashion.  I can't say it has been well-planned.  It was more a case of finding a home for various waifs and strays hanging around in pots and in odd corners.  So some more Deschampsia has gone in, to balance the existing clumps clustered around the Phlomis (which has picked up well after the winter), and the Francoa has been moved from its increasingly dark position under the Osmanthus.  I also dug up a few clumps of the Lysimachia clethroides (I can never remember its name, so am recording it here to jog my memory!) which was parked rather unceremoniously on the edge of the vegetable garden years ago because I had nowhere better to put it, and they have now gone in there too,  I hope it isn't too much of a dog's breakfast, though it's bound to look rather bitty for a while until the plants bulk up.

The Lysimachia needed re-siting because work on the tumbledown wall at the back of the vegetable garden was about to start, and it was very likely to be trodden on in the process.

The wrong tulip - Tulipa tarda?

The wrong tulip pairing - 'Pole Position' and 'Flaming Flag'

The yellow colours are still predominant, although from certain angles the yellow is challenged by the bright purple of the honesty along the side hedge.  The main season tulips are also starting to come out.  Not all of these are a big success, to be honest.  The little red tulips planted in what I always hope will one day become a 'hot border' are coming along nicely; they have lovely slim, twisted glaucous leaves, and their buds are promisingly red.  However one of them isn't the same species.  It is already out, and it looks like Tulipa tarda to me; not really a problem, as it's a nice tulip, but it's just a bit solitary.  The big mistake is the pot pairing up 'Pole Position' (described as purple with a white edge) with 'Flaming Flag' (described as white with a purple edge).  On paper this sounds like a very tasteful pairing, but sadly there's purple, and again there's purple ... and it's not the same purple.  'Flaming Flag' is a pretty tulip, with shades of lilac and white and a distinct darker flame mark up the centre of the petals; it's a little on the small side, but attractive. 'Pole Position' doesn't do it for me, however.  I would describe it as burgundy rather than purple, especially when it first comes out, and the white is rather off-white; and neither colour is very nuanced.  There's none of the subtle shading, nor the luminosity or sheen, that you get with the best tulips.  As far as I'm concerned it's a candidate for the back of the grid, not the pole position.  Problem is, will I be able to distinguish between the two sets of bulbs when I come to replant them?  Probably not.

My hopes of a last flush of flowers from poor old Viburnum carlcephalum before it dies are not going to be fulfilled.  The buds are shrivelling and the new leaves dying.  It's definitely on the way out.  The dead branches cut off earlier had a marked mushroomy smell that indicates a fungal problem. I'll try to get the roots up; I hope I don't find the signs of honey fungus in there :(.

Damson flowers against a sunny spring sky

On a happier note, the plum tree and the damsons in the hedge are coming into bloom; with their fresh green foliage, against a blue sky, they're a cheering sight after the cold winter.  It's all the more cheering because the pollinating insects are at last coming out to feed; several bees were busy, also hoverflies and something I couldn't really identify (I must get better clued-up on bugs).  I found the first ladybird of the year (a 2-spot) in the lawn while digging up dandelions; there was a white butterfly (or maybe an orange-tip - I couldn't tell from the quick glimpses I got) fluttering about and a peacock butterfly was sunning itself on one of the manhole covers.  Less pleasingly I also found four lily beetles (now deceased!) on Lilium henryi.  The increased insect life has been much appreciated by a small bat which has been visiting during the evening.

On the bird front, sadly there are no more signs of the baby blackbirds, and the parents aren't taking away food any more.  The sparrowhawk has been about (more pheasant feathers at the bottom of the garden), and was seen flying into the hedge one day; there has also been a pair of magpies around.  The robins still seem to be busy, and the starling nest in the roof is noisy with little ones.  The sparrows are also nesting in their various corners of the roof.  The goldfinches and a greenfinch have been about, and a wren sings noisily down by the summerhouse from time to time (it's amazing how much sound such a small bird can make).  This week has also seen the return of the house martins and swallows, always a welcome sight - and definitely a sign of spring springing!