Blossom time

 

Next door's blossom

The weather has continued mostly warm(ish), sunny and dry, if a bit chilly at night (turning colder this week though).  The spring blossom is starting to bring some colour to our gardens, though I don’t have anything quite as colourful as our neighbours’ trees, which are contributing some cheer to the view from upstairs.  The wild damson trees at the bottom of our garden are starting to bloom, with the first tentative flowers coming out on the plum tree.  Just in time for the frost later in the week!

The daffodils are providing the main colour in the garden at the moment.  The little daffs in the two plastic tubs on the patio are giving the best show in years, despite my concerns about having tried to grow courgettes in the same space last summer (and failing!).

Lovely daffs in an unlovely tub

Also growing well is the grass in the lawn.  It was finally cut today, leaving areas uncut to allow the cowslips and orchids to flower.  There are more orchids than ever; at some point we’ll have to just mow a few, or the lawn will have to be left completely wild.

In an attempt to get on top of things before the perennials take off, I’ve used some of my dogwood prunings to construct d-i-y cages as supports for the floppier plants.  It’s a little hit or miss; I’m not sure that the new stems won’t push the structures apart once they start coming through, and if the birds take to perching on them I expect they won’t last too long! – but we’ll see.  The supports around the peony look too high, but the ones around the achillea and the sedums (Hylotelephium ‘Herbstfreude’) might just do the job.

Dogwood supports!

The lily of the valley, barely visible a week ago, is coming through at a great rate.  I’m still trying to dig it out of the veg plot path, and mulch it out where it’s spreading into the ground round the apple cordons.  The veg beds are still rather bare; I’m waiting for the direct-sown broad beans to make an appearance.  At least they haven’t been disturbed, although a pheasant dug itself a hollow just in front of one of the rows and sat there happily sunning itself.  I had spread some wood ash over the rows where the beans were planted, more to get rid of the ash than to benefit the beans, but apparently the pheasant didn’t care for the ash and seemed to be avoiding it – a useful point to note.

Last weekend I spent a windy and chilly day in the greenhouse, sorting out the ginger lilies.  These had been ignored last year and were sitting at the back of the greenhouse going quietly brown; I potted them up in fresh compost and gave them some water to see how many of them will survive.  Two of them were split, so I now have seven pots; at least two of them have new shoots.  I really don’t need seven, so I might throw a couple out if they don’t do well.  I’m amazed that they’re still alive after such poor treatment last year; they’re obviously tougher than I gave them credit for.

The carrots sown in the guttering in the greenhouse are starting to germinate, despite being at least a year old – a small success!  And having taken a few cuttings last year from my very small fig tree, I see that one of them is putting out new leaves, which is encouraging. 

Having said that I hadn’t seen any butterflies this year, they are now starting to appear: a couple of brief sightings of a peacock and a male brimstone.