Waifs and strays

The new small bed by the patio, reclaimed from the lawn a couple of years or so back, has been sitting empty since I removed the plastic covering that was helping to suppress the weeds.  I’ve been meaning to do something with it, but have been hesitating partly because of having other things to do and partly out of indecision as to what to plant where. 

The weed suppressant has been pretty effective, I have to say; nothing much has tried to come up in that space, but you can’t keep ground empty for too long otherwise something less desirable is likely to take over.  And I have plenty of plants, waifs and strays, sitting around in small pots waiting for a new home.  So the other day I gathered them all together, and got planting.

Waifs and strays, in their new home

They’re a bit of a rag-bag – plants picked up at plant sales, or cuttings taken in this garden, and never planted out.  Their number tends to reduce in summer (drying out when I forget to water them!) and occasionally in winter (cold or, more usually, excessive wet).  Some of them have been hanging around for a ridiculously long time.  When I looked to find my little Paeonia Mlokosewitschii (known to most gardeners as the Molly-The-Witch peony) that I was given by a neighbour more years ago than I care to think about, I found that it was sharing a small pot with an enormous self-sown foxglove plant, and needed to be separated from it.  Other pots had moss and other weeds that had to be removed, and dead bits to be cut off, but eventually I got them in reasonable shape.

Then, how to group them?  Most are deciduous, so there’s a risk that the new bed will look very bare in winter.  There are a couple of sages (a purple, and a Salvia icterina which is green/yellow) which will provide some colour, and a purple-leaved heuchera was moved up from another bed to provide more winter interest; there are also a couple of dianthus that keep their leaves all year.  I’ll put in some early snowdrops (Galanthus elwesii – they need dividing) to give some early flowers.  I suspect, though, that it will look a bit meh until the new growth gets going, and possibly rather blobby once it does.  I’m also not sure how much room each plant will need; but they can be moved as necessary once they outgrow their space.

The bed itself will be expanded as time and effort permit, and certainly the edges need defining to prevent the grass from creeping back in – so plenty more work there.  But for the moment, it will do.

Spring flowers are getting underway: the first cowslip is in bloom in the lawn.

First cowslip

Soap and water

A clear view from the greenhouse!

Mid-March, and so much to do.  With the buddleja pruned, and the prunings taken to the compost bins (emptied and refilled for the coming season), I earmarked Sunday for the other big pruning job, the cooking apple tree.  The forecast was for a dry day – ideal for getting on with it.

After much consideration of what to take out, I started to make the first few cuts – and it began to rain.  Only light, but enough to make me retreat indoors, and to listen to Gardeners’ Question Time on the radio instead.  One of the subjects covered was that this is a good time to clean the greenhouse.  This is a job that I don’t enjoy and rarely do, but (like so much else in the garden) it badly needs tackling.  With the clouds promising intermittent drizzle during the afternoon, I reluctantly took myself into the greenhouse with a bucket of hot soapy water to clean the green-filmed windows.

Promise of rain

To my surprise, it took less time than I had expected (although, admittedly, I still haven’t done the roof), and the results were gratifying.  Even working around the various obstacles, such as the pots where the dahlias are being started off and the assorted junk in the way – and the self-sown antirrhinum, which is still in situ and looking very healthy (I don’t have the heart to pull it up) – it proved quite easy.  I also cleaned the lid of the propagator, which had become opaque with grime, and now I can see the seed trays inside (maincrop broad beans, parsley, dill, coriander and salad onions), and whether or not the seeds are coming up!

The propagator - newly cleaned!

The antirrhinum - and dahlia pots

My efforts obviously disturbed a ladybird that must have been hiding in there – I found it crawling across an old pair of gardening gloves.

Ladybird on my gloves

Although the weather was damp, it was the first day this year that was warm enough for me to work outside without a jacket; and today the first butterfly of the year – a male brimstone – fluttered through the garden.  There will no doubt be chilly days still to come, but spring is in the air!

Into March

What a difference a couple of weeks can make.  We were away for just over two weeks, in February; we left with everything feeling and looking ‘late winter’ (snowdrops, hellebores and winter shrubs in bloom, low temperatures and lots of wet) and returned to ‘early spring’ (daffodils, pulmonaria, crocuses, and light until well after 6pm).  February was mild and very wet, with ground waterlogged in many places, but March is being typically unpredictable – one day of wet snow (not forecast) and a couple of frosty nights, then bright sunshine and even a little warmth in the sun, then damp and cloudy.

Pretty but unwanted!

Time to get gardening again.  There’s a lot of cutting back and pruning still to be done, and spreading of compost in the veg patch, and of course weeding.  One cutting back / weeding job that I’ve neglected is to tackle a big sucker from the plum tree that came up in the border near the summerhouse.  It has been there for two or three years, and it’s one of those jobs that I keep meaning to do …. but it has almost become ‘part of the furniture’ so gets repeatedly ignored.  I wandered down to take a look with a view to taking out one or two of the stems, only to find that it is in full flower.  It’s really pretty, but it shouldn’t be there!  I’ll leave it for a week or two – I have plenty of other jobs to be getting on with – to allow the bees and other pollinators to enjoy whatever nourishment it can offer, before setting to and trying to cut the stems out.  I doubt if it will be possible to dig it out.

Another neglected job was to deal with one of the fruit cage posts.  We still speak of the ‘fruit cage’, although there has been no ‘cage’ since we moved into the house over 30 years ago, but the six large posts that supported it remained.  Gradually they have rotted away, until only two were left.  Recently I noticed that one of them had rotted completely at the base, and was only being held up by a large ivy plant growing over it.  I left it alone, not being quite sure what to do about it, but the last strong winds brought it down, landing on the blackcurrant bushes.  I heaved it upright again, leaving it leaning against the wall until I can find the time to do something better with it (I’m not quite sure what ….).

A posy in the porch

My two plastic tubs of miniature daffodils were in full flower on our return, and the first of the big daffs were ready for cutting on St David’s day (1^st March), a good week before they usually bloom.  The miniatures and some pulmonaria made a nice little vase for the porch.  The sweet violets are also in flower.  The newly planted crocus angustifolius were rather past their best by the time we got home, sadly – perhaps the sparrows had been pecking at the blooms? – though the Narcissus ‘Elka’ with which they’re sharing a pot are now just opening.  Also in flower are the little Crocus tommasinianus ‘Whitewell Purple’ down near the summerhouse, although as usual they’re looking rather tatty; I keep meaning to dig some of them up and move them to the grass verge opposite the house, where they will get more sun and look better.  They’re good in grass.

Crocus angustifolius - rather past their best

The garden birds mostly seemed pleased to see us back and providing breakfast on the patio again.  Lefty the lame pigeon has been hanging around a lot, and is often waiting for us in the mornings, but the patio robins took quite some time to come back – they had presumably become accustomed to finding their breakfast elsewhere, and are still rather standoffish.  The birds are not yet nesting, but at least some of them seem to have homemaking on their minds; a sparrow managed to get into the porch one morning (via the roof, we assume, although we haven’t found the entrance), presumably scouting out a nest site under the tiles.