Survivors

One of my vaguer garden plans is to do something with the ground under the ash tree at the edge of the drive.  It gets plenty of sun, despite the leaf cover, so should be able to host a variety of plants; and, as it forms a major part of the view from the kitchen window, something more than the current bare(ish) soil would be nice.  The big problem is that the soil is so full of roots just below the surface that it's difficult even to poke a hand fork in there; a slightly lesser problem is the variety of weeds (ground elder, ivy, creeping buttercup and various small annuals) that inhabit the space.  A few years ago I managed to get a few erythronium bulbs in, but since then the area has had all sorts of stuff - pallets, piles of firewood - plonked on it.  The stuff was cleared last autumn and I applied a blast of weedkiller to such weeds as had survived, then sowed some hardy annual seeds there - more in hope than expectation, as the seeds were mostly from very old packets that had probably passed their sell-by date.  The other day I looked it over to see what was germinating; as I expected, it's the usual weedy suspects with no sign of anything resembling desirable plants - other than, amazingly, an erythronium leaf coming up.  So the short-term plan is now to weed out the undesirables (fiddly but relatively easy), cosset the erythronium with some blood, fish and bonemeal, apply some compost and raise some plug plants to fill the space.  All I need to do then is to keep next door's cat off it.

Late last year, finding myself short of time to get the tulips planted, I only partly cleared out the big pot at the bottom of the garden; just enough to get the new tulips in, but leaving some of the summer planting in place.  I dug out bits of the Nepeta variegata and potted them up for overwintering in the greenhouse (where they're doing quite nicely), but obviously some of the Nepeta survived in the pot, and surprisingly it's still there, despite being in quite an exposed position.  Being a low-growing plant, it must have had some protection from the penstemon and euphorbias around it.

Another surprise is a whole lot of cyclamen seedlings coming up between the paving slabs at the side of the house.  They look like Cyclamen coum, despite being some distance from the C. coums in the garden; the C. hederifoliums are closer.  Perhaps a mouse hid the seeds there?  It's a bit far for ants to have moved them. The ones lodged between the paving and the house wall can stay, I suppose - I don't expect they'll cause problems there, and it's an uninteresting area otherwise - but I don't want them between the slabs.  If I can get some of them out without too much damage, I'll pot them on; they might be candidates for under the ash tree!

The snowdrops are mostly over now, but most of the crocuses are still doing well (especially 'Cream Beauty'; 'Blue Pearl' is fading) and the blue Anemone blandas are starting.  The daffodils are very late this year - not sure why - with the first big ones (in the front garden) only opening the other day.  The little 'Tete-a-tete's have been open for a couple of weeks, but the other small daffs are still in bud.  The first show is usually from the big yellow daffs under the plum tree, but all but one clump there is coming up blind and the others are still to open.  Some of the other clumps are looking short on buds too.  They will be quite old bulbs; many were in the garden when we came here, and the ones under the plum tree were planted soon after we arrived 20+ years ago.  This may be an opportunity to replace the big varieties with something more delicate and graceful, though getting rid of the blind ones may be easier said than done; digging in the plum tree roots is neither practicable nor desirable.

Recent jobs in the garden have been the first cut of the lawn, trying to dig out bramble roots, planting a Mahonia 'Winter sun' to screen the view of the electric substation across the road and starting off the dahlias in the greenhouse.  Last year's 'Jescot Julie' produced a single giant tuber like a monster pear; 'Bishop of Auckland' has multiplied into three plants; and 'Ambition' is looking rather shrivelled, but I've planted it up in the hope that it might produce at least something from which I might take cuttings.  This year I've added 'Karma Choc', 'Juliet' and 'Blue Bayou', all now left to do their thing in a corner of the greenhouse.

The weather has been chilly, with an easterly wind, but mostly dry; this week the wind is from the north-west and is a mix of sunshine and showers (hail showers today).  A frost is forecast for tonight.

Bee activity is picking up, and there were two ladybirds basking in the sunshine in the bottom of the big potentilla in the lawn (which I will get rid of one of these days!).  One of the female blackbirds has become quite trusting, and lets me get quite close; the male is warier.  The blackbirds are starting to sing properly, and I heard a thrush yesterday.  A red kite, being hassled by a group of crows, and a pair of buzzards have been hunting over the field behind us; today a flock of redwings and fieldfares were scouring it.  And a female tawny owl has been calling in the evenings quite close by.

Back to spring

Back home after three weeks away, to find definite signs of spring in the garden.  Neighbours report that the weather has been chilly and windy, but the greenhouse's max/min thermometer shows that the sun had warmed it on at least one day well into the 20s, and the vents have opened at least twice since we came back.  When the sun comes out there is definitely warmth there, but the weather is still well able to revert to cold, windy and wet (like today).  That's March for you.

The snowdrops and cyclamen coum are all still out, as are the crocuses - some nice displays in the patio pots, appreciated yesterday by several bees.  The tete-a-tete daffodils came out this week to cheer things up further, and of course the hellebores are opening nicely.  There are a couple of violet flowers out down in the bottom border, and the first signs of brunnera flowers.  Inevitably the weeds are also starting to sprout, telling me that it's time to sow seeds!

The blackbirds and robins at least are building nests; we've also seen a pair of each of chaffinch, greenfinch and bullfinch, as well as blue and great tits.  A pheasant and a few partridges have also been around from time to time, and I saw the first bumblebee of the year around the big hellebore the other day - spring is on the way!