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.