Temptation

Daffodils and Lonicera

One of the pleasures of returning from a couple of weeks in snowy Norway is that the UK looks very green and springlike by comparison, and this year the very mild February weather (which hit Norway as well as here) really made for a spring homecoming.  For our first week back, the sun shone, warm at times, and the plants responded accordingly.  Usually our first daffodils open around mid-March (assuming we don't have a Beast from the East like last year) and it's unusual to have any in flower in time for St David's Day, but this year the front-garden daffs were in bloom before the end of February.  A few of them looked good in a vase with some leafy honeysuckle stems and some winter honeysuckle (Lonicera x purpusii); the latter is in full flow, a splendid show, providing lots of sustenance for the big queen bumblebees and their smaller relatives who were tempted out of hibernation by the warmth.  (The cut daffs are now fading; sadly they don't die attractively, unlike tulips which look elegant and silk-like even in their death-throes.)

The winter has been dry until this weekend (when we are having Storm Freya with gales and rain), and I was able to get on with the most urgent gardening jobs.  It was unusual to be able to garden in February without a jacket, and with gloves only necessary for protection, not warmth!  The temptation is to cast caution to the winds and put the semi-tender plants outdoors, but there's still March to get through, and although the forecast is for wet and windy weather rather than ice and snow, a warm week in February is no guarantee of an early spring.  So the to-do list was the usual late winter jobs: pruning the big apple tree and the wisteria (just in time, as the mild temperatures were causing them to start breaking dormancy; there are already buds on the damsons showing colour), planting the shallots (and I did risk putting a few lettuce seedlings alongside them, with a fleece covering for protection and to stop the birds from pulling the bulbs up), and making a start on pruning the buddleja.  There are also a few roses still needing tidying up; they're already putting out leaves.  I also managed one task that I'd been meaning to tackle for a couple of years now, renewing the capping stones on the dry-stone wall at the further end of the veg plot.  They were not very stable to start with, and some of them were crumbling while others had been dislodged by pheasants and next-door's cat scrambling up the wall; there were also some stones below that needed to be replaced.  I was able to find just enough stones to make a moderately decent job of it; they should last a few years anyway (next-door's cat permitting).  It was a job that needed to be done in winter, before the lily-of-the-valley that grows in front of that stretch of wall started to shoot - as it was I think I crushed a few emerging buds.

Rhubarb 'Timperley Early'

The veg plot still has plenty of leeks to dig up, and the garlic seems to be doing well.  The broad beans are already in flower, and the 'Timperley Early' rhubarb is living up to its name - first harvest this weekend.

Helleborus x hybridus

Besides the daffodils and winter honeysuckle, the pulmonarias, hellebores and crocuses are also in flower.  The Tommies (Crocus tommasinianus) beside the summerhouse were looking good until a heavy rainshower the other day which flattened them; the more robust 'Blue Pearl', 'Cream Beauty' and the big purple ones ('Remembrance'?) survived a little better.  I used to have some bright yellow Crocus angustifolius but I don't know what happened to them as they haven't appeared for a couple of years.  (Note to self: the 'Blue Pearl' crocuses in the front garden have been swamped by the snowdrops and are barely visible; if possible they should be moved elsewhere.)  The snowdrops were going over by the time we returned from holiday; although they looked quite good from a distance en masse, close to they were really past it.  I found half-a-dozen to make a posy with some sweet violets but they only lasted for a few days.  There was a nice splash of colour in the greenhouse, where a clutch of 'Cream Beauty' crocuses were in bloom; they had been inadvertently dug up when I rescued the last mesembryanthemums from the window-box and I had assumed that they were 'Tete-a-tete' daffodils (which was stupid of me, as the daffodils were planted much deeper and the bulbs are much bigger).

Crocus (probably 'Remembrance')

Snowdrops and sweet violets

Crocus 'Cream Beauty'

The wildlife has responded well to the good weather.  Besides all the bees and hoverflies, several ladybirds have been sunning themselves - a welcome sight, as I saw very few last year - and a pair of brimstone butterflies and a peacock have also been in the garden.  The birds have been very active, although there are fewer blackbirds than before; I suspect some were migrants which have started returning home.  A couple of blackbirds and a song thrush have been singing, and Lefty our lame pigeon and his mate have been picking up nesting material.  I was thinking of cutting down the bare stems of the Big Yellow Thing (bupthalmum is its proper name), which are left over winter for architectural value and so that birds can eat the seeds, but a goldfinch was feeding on them the other day so I'll leave them a little longer.

Temptation of another sort: a few days ago, our local male pheasant was spotted stalking around the greenhouse trying to peer in through the windows (although the bubblewrap inside would have prevented him from seeing much).  I didn't worry too much about leaving the door open on mild days as the big sheet of bubblewrap that hangs in front of the door was flapping about in the breeze and I thought that would deter him from venturing in - but when I went to put away my secateurs after tackling the buddleja yesterday, there was a panicky flapping about inside.  I stepped aside and let him scramble out and run away, leaving some shredded bubblewrap where he had tried to fly up in his fright, and a scent of Pelargonium 'Lady Plymouth' where he had trodden on the overwintering plants, but otherwise without any damage.  Given the speed with which he made off, I don't think he'll be tempted to try that again!