The big race

It's that time of year when everything is growing rapidly, especially those plants that I don't want to grow - the weeds, and those plants which have become far more successful than I ever wanted them to be (eg the pink geranium).  And at this time of year I always get the sinking feeling that they will probably get away with it, because I won't have the time to deal with them.  With more time available this year, I hope to make more inroads into the general chaos than in the past, but the race between them and me is on.  With the help of a couple of bags of salt I have reduced the number of dandelions in the lawn, and regular patrols round the garden are keeping more or less on top of the flowering weeds (so far).

Tulips with Sweet Cicely and forget-me-nots

The new tulips ('Prinses Irene', 'Couleur Cardinal' and 'Havran') at the bottom of the garden are coming out nicely.  They're rather shorter than I expected but they're a great match for one another in size and shape of flower, they have good leaves and are a terrific colour combination; the Euphorbia characias and Erysimum 'Bowles Mauve' add to the fun (the latter is a particularly good companion).  On the subject of euphorbias, I had been assuming that all the big ones that come up in odd corners of the garden were the offspring of an E. characias I had years ago, but I've just noticed that one in the front garden has dark 'eyes' in the flowers, and looks more like E. wulfenii.  I wonder where that came from?

The centaurea is out, and so is the chaenomeles, although it's rather smothered by the honeysuckle so you can hardly see it.

The early potatoes ('Belle de Fontenay' and 'International Kidney') have gone in today; I'm still renovating the bed where the maincrops are to go.  The leeks are coming up along with the oriental greens (and a whole lot of weed seedlings!), and I've sown dill and coriander alongside the broad beans as that seemed to work well last year.  I need to start hardening off the lettuce and brassica seedlings in the greenhouse.

The weather has continued to be a mix of sunshine, dull periods and showers, though fewer of the latter than forecast.  A little cooler than normal but the sun is pleasant; warnings of overnight frosts haven't come to anything thus far.

On the wildlife front, the first baby birds (a blackbird and a thrush) have briefly broken cover.  The thrushes seem to be keeping mostly to the bottom of the garden; an adult has come once or twice to the patio for water, but they mostly seem to be down in the compost corner (which is where I startled the youngster the other day).  Still lots of (adult) sparrows, and several very frisky dunnocks; the robins are still feeding their brood.  The lame pigeon has been having some big fights with other male pigeons who feed underneath the seed feeder; he tolerates others, who I assume are the females, although he hasn't noticeably had any success in wooing them.

There is also some unidentified wildlife in the greenhouse; something has been eating my aster seedlings.  Grrr.