Absolutely no excuse

There's absolutely no excuse for not getting on with the gardening jobs now.  We are instructed to stay at home for at least three weeks, and the sun has been shining; most people in the village are either working in their gardens or taking some exercise walking round the lanes.  And the clocks go forward this weekend, giving an extra hour to work in the afternoon.  The sun has not exactly been warm, but it was very welcome and it dispersed the early morning frost; I've been opening the greenhouse vents during the day to stop it getting too warm in there.  It'll soon be time to take down the bubblewrap, but not until the night frosts ease up; this morning is cloudy and breezy, and the next couple of days are going to be much colder and windier.  The rising temperatures in the last week or so, however, have brought out more bees, wasps and hoverflies, and the first two butterflies: a peacock and a comma.

Soon, ideally this weekend, we'll make the first cut of the lawn, which is looking decidedly shaggy after the mild winter.  The orchids have been marked off to protect them, and the cowslips are starting to show too.  In preparation I've dug out the old grass clippings pile, which had at least two years' worth, and probably more, of rotted clippings in it; the old rotted stuff has been spread under the hazels and under some of the apple cordons, to improve the soil and to mulch out some of the weeds (mostly speedwell and lesser celandine).  If I can find compost to spare, in due course I might spread some on top of the hazels bed and plant out salad crops in there.  The robin was very enthusiastic about my work, but two toads probably took a rather dimmer view of my disturbing their nice damp hiding place in the old clippings pile.  I tidied up the honeysuckle and clematis down in that corner of the garden as well, and it's now looking rather tidier.

Doronicum caucasicum

The daffodils are mostly all out, except for the late scented ones; the mixed small daffs continue to do very well, but the 'Elka' have only produced eight flowers in all and probably need feeding.  I need to find a place for, and plant, more of the late scented narcissi; the few I had seem to have pretty much all disappeared.  The doronicums are also out; it's a pity that they're daffodil-yellow, as they disappear visually into the general mix.  Epimedium sulphureum is also yellow, but a paler shade of primrose and, being a shade-lover, it's well away from the daffs.  In late winter I cut off all the leaves and gave the plant a frost-protecting mulch of dry wisteria leaves; the flowers are coming through this and making a rather fine show.

Epimedium sulphureum

I'm also quite pleased with the windowbox; it looked a bit meh for much of the winter, despite the varied foliage colour, but the crocuses and little daffodils are out and it now looks rather better.  For later in spring, I have a six-pack of little violas - an impulse buy at the garden centre when I went to stock up on bird seed - which cost all of £1.50 and look like a bargain at that price.

Much is being made in the press about panic-buying of toilet rolls; when I went shopping just before everything locked down, what I had trouble finding was potting compost (my favourite brand from my preferred supplier was sold out - "it's been manic" said the sales guy) and bird seed.  I got the seed from elsewhere, and am just hoping that I can get by with my current stock of compost until I'm able to replenish it.  Propagation has to go ahead, however; the aubergines have been potted on into larger pots, and the tomato seedlings (sown in half-toilet roll inners) potted into 3in pots.  All are now on the landing window-sill.  In the greenhouse I need to make space for all the seed-sowing and potting up of dahlia tubers which will occupy me in the next couple of weeks.

Mixed hellebores

There are plenty of other jobs to be getting on with as well.  At the side of the house, a clump of self-sown hellebores contains a nice white plant, and later in the year I'd like to isolate that and put it in a better spot.  In the meantime I need to mark it in some way so that I dig up the correct bit!