Coming out of the woodwork

The recent spell of dry, sunny weather - not always warm, but spirit-lifting none the less - brought out a lot of overwintering wildlife and encouraged the wildlife that was already around.  Ladybirds, in particular, have literally been coming out of the woodwork; a lot of them seem to have overwintered behind our wooden windowframes, and have been crawling around and up the glass trying to get out.  I've been directing as many of them as possible into the open air, where they can join their cousins outside; I've seen more ladybirds so far this year than in the past few years taken together, which must be a good sign.  Butterflies have been emerging too; a male brimstone was around over several days, on one occasion with a female (who wasn't interested in mating), and a peacock butterfly also visited, enjoying the sunshine.  And the first hedgehog droppings have been appearing on the lawn.

The gardener was also encouraged outdoors, and not just for gardening; one day I managed lunch outside on the bench, for the first time this year.

Lesser celandine

Visiting bees have had fairly good pickings.  The lesser celandines blossomed in the sun; they're a tolerable weed for the most part, providing cheerful colour at what is often a dull time of year.  The gooseberry bushes have also started to flower, which always attracts the bees, and the pulmonarias were popular with both bees and butterflies.  The early daffodils are starting to go over, but the tulips are beginning to bloom ('White Valley' was first, with 'Exotic Emperor' just behind, though the overwintered bulbs of the latter variety have produced very poor flowers, so I won't bother keeping them when they've finished blooming).  Everything is early this year - a big contrast to last spring!; the lily of the valley was in bud before the end of last month.

A pretty pair of thugs

There are still plenty of daffodils for cutting, and I made a vaseful of Allium triquetrum and brunnera stems: a pair of garden thugs, but quite pretty ones!

The good weather allowed me to get on with several jobs.  The buddleja, like everything else, was well ahead of where it usually is in late March; a lot of the shoots were over a foot long, and it was well time to get the pruning finished.  This, and all the associated jobs, have been done: it always generates a lot of soft and small twiggy prunings which fill the compost bins, so first the bins need to be emptied and turned, and the 'cooked' compost gets used to prepare the runner bean bed.  The long woody prunings have been turned into bean poles, stakes and pea sticks.  Elsewhere in the garden, old top growth left in place over winter has been removed, which always makes the place look more spring-like, and the first cut of the lawn made.  In the greenhouse, seed-sowing has started; although the cold weather isn't behind us yet, the heater has been put away and the propagator turned on, and the cold frame opened up during the day.

Propagator all filled up

However, as forecast, this week has turned cold, with wintry showers and a sharp frost last night; let's hope that the plum blossom hasn't been affected too much!

Plum blossom - before the frost!