A dry weekend

 

A few dry days – at last – over the past weekend allowed us to get on with jobs in the garden, especially the first cut of the lawn.  The cowslips are in full flower so that area was left uncut, and the grass around the plum tree was also left to allow the orchids to flower later in the year; but the garden always looks tidier with the main part of the grass mown.

Ahead of the mowing, I dug into the pile of old grass clippings (not dealt with for about three years, I think) and moved some of it under the apple cordons, to help keep the weeds down.  I’m slowly working my way along the row, removing weeds and grass as I go, and pondering what to do about the soil in front of the cordons.  I’ve hit upon a solution, which may or may not be a wise move.  There are a lot of self-seeded oregano plants in the garden, especially in the old herb bed where I’m planning to plant out the dahlias this year; I’ve been reluctant to get rid of the oregano as it’s pretty in flower, and useful in the kitchen, but moreover it attracts huge numbers of butterflies and bees in summer, which are very welcome.  So I’ve started moving some of it to the apple bed, which is in full sun and ought to suit.  Am I creating another problem for myself, with the oregano taking over under the apples?  I’ll need to be ruthless about cutting it back, even though the seedheads attract goldfinches in winter; I won’t be able to allow it to seed, and I think I’ll have to renew it periodically to stop it becoming too woody.  We’ll see.

I also found a couple of bags of old leaf mould and rotted sawdust, and spread them on some of the veg beds.  The birds enjoyed this; there were blackbirds, a thrush, goldfinches and a wren picking over the area once I moved away.  There is a lot of nesting activity at the moment; the sparrows are collecting grass, and the thrush has been picking up mud from the pond for her nest.

Tulips 'Dreamer' - and 'National Velvet' ('Havran' in bud in front)

The tulip pots are continuing to brighten up even the dull days.  The ‘Dreamer’ pot is developing nicely, and, despite what I said in my last post, the dark pointed tulips are in fact ‘National Velvet’; ‘Havran’ is not yet in flower, just in bud.  In the biggest pot, ‘Prinses Irene’ is starting to come out, with the much taller ‘Black Hero’  and shorter ‘Uncle Tom’ still to come.  The first of the ‘Doll’s Minuet’ is out, and the more I see of this tulip the more I like it; the colour is glorious, and the petals twist outwards in a very elegant way.  I’m thinking that it might work as a partner for ‘Prinses Irene’ in a future planting, perhaps with a dark tulip to provide contrast, and to damp down the colour clash; while orange and pink is a combo that I would normally back away from in horror, the darker markings on the backs of both tulips combine well, and the effect would be – how should I put this? – striking.  Shocking, even - but certainly colourful!

Tulip 'Doll's Minuet'

Tulip 'Prinses Irene'

After the dry weekend, the weather has turned showery and windy again, and quite chilly.  In fact we’ve just had a brief snow shower …

In the cells

I have a love-hate relationship with seed cells.  They can be great for raising seedlings up to potting-on or planting-out stage: easy to fill with compost, and more convenient than lots of individual small pots; the seedlings can be easily moved en masse rather than the fiddly business of transporting several little pots.  It’s not so easy to get the seedlings out with all their roots intact, mind you; much of the compost tends to get left behind when you prise them out, but with a little care they can be extracted without too much damage.

On the other hand: well, there are a number of disadvantages.  My success rate with seeds isn’t all that it might be (too many old packs of seed!), and often I find that each set of cells ends up with only a very few actual seedlings in it, and I’m taking up space in the greenhouse / cold frame / propagator with a number of empty cells.  Then, all the seedlings have to be dealt with at the same time; if some seeds are still germinating and need the extra heat or protection of the propagator or whatever, while their neighbours are further ahead and are ready to be potted on, I have to hold back the latter or sacrifice the former.  I can create a problem by sowing two or more different lots of seeds in the same cell-pack, as not all will necessarily germinate at the same rate.  Likewise if – as has happened with my lettuce seedlings – some are eaten or damaged by slugs or snails while the rest are growing away fine, I have to give house-room to cells with no viable seedlings in them.  (The lettuces had been germinated in the cold frame, with no pest damage; then, once pricked out into the cells, they fell prey to a snail that got into the frame.  The snail was removed and thrown into the field across the road.)

Lettuce seedlings - grazed by the snail!

At least the propagator is pest-proof.  But here’s a conundrum.  In there I have a cell-pack containing three different sets of seeds: spring onions, dill and coriander.  At least, that’s what the plant labels say; for once, I did actually label them, but did I label them correctly?  The seedlings that are rather patchily coming up all look the same.  The two in the ‘spring onions’ cell are definitely not spring onions (and there are no signs of the actual onions – in fairness, that was probably old seed).  There are two ‘coriander’ seedlings, one of which has the remains of the outer seed coating still stuck to its leaves, and that does indeed look like a coriander seed, which is fairly distinctive.  The ‘dill’ seedlings seem to be doing well – but why did I sow dill in here, when I have other dill seedlings germinating successfully in the cold frame?  And those look different to – and much more dill-like than – the propagator seedlings.  A quick nibble of one of the propagator occupants tells me that these ‘dill’ seedlings are indeed herbs, but they don't taste like dill; they may be more coriander, which is useful but puzzling.  Did I sow two rows of coriander – and spill some seed into the ‘onions’ cells – and mislabel one row as dill?  Time, I suppose, will tell once the true leaves appear!

Conundrum

Most of my dahlia tubers got separated from their labels in storage, but they are starting to sprout nicely in the greenhouse.  Perhaps the weather will warm up enough to plant them out later in the spring!  The weather continues to be depressingly wet, although the forecast is for a dry weekend, which might allow us to mow the lawn at last.  A windy few days knocked the ‘Exotic Emperor’ tulips about, but the ‘Orange Emperor’ ones (in a slightly more sheltered position) are still standing, and tulips ‘Dreamer’ and ‘Havran’ are coming up together in one of the larger pots (there ought to be ‘National Velvet’ in there too; is it a later variety?).  ‘Dreamer’ is pretty, but not multi-headed as the catalogue suggested (which is a pity as it was a more expensive variety). 

Dahlia 'David Howard' starting to sprout

Tulip 'Orange Emperor'

'Dreamer' and 'Havran'

And there’s always one rogue bulb in every order: a lovely delicate little, mutiheaded, soft yellow daffodil has appeared in the pot of ‘Elka’ daffs.  I wish I knew what it is, so that I could get more for next year!

'Elka' - and an unknown yellow interloper

At least I did better than a friend in the village, whose potful of tastefully selected pink tulips has turned out to be a mixture of red, yellow and purple.

Down in yon forest ...

With all the February/March pruning tasks (wisteria, buddleja, apple tree) out of the way, despite the soggy weather (and occasional hailstorm), I’ve been turning my attention and my loppers to other hacking back jobs.  A dry day (there haven’t been many) on Easter Saturday was ideal for getting into the Forest.

My original idea for this area was to plant up a mini woodland glade, with small trees and shrubs, and a path running through it.  As the shrubs (too many, too big, planted too close together) have grown, and been invaded by ivy, brambles and other unwanted plants, though, what I’ve ended up with is less a glade and more an impenetrable, Tolkein-esque forest, albeit on a very small scale.  So I scrambled into my mini-Mirkwood with loppers and a saw and set to work.

The oldest plant in this space is a small tree, a purple-leaved prunus which was in the garden when we arrived, over 30 years ago.  It is showing its age, covered in lichen and, less desirably, in ivy, and suckering prolifically at the base; I’ve tried in the past to get the suckers out, but they are rooted too far below the surface.  It’s too early in the year to prune it safely, so I’ve left it alone for the moment. 

Lichen and ivy on the prunus

Alongside I had planted a winter honeysuckle (Lonicera purpusii), which has a spreading habit and has spread its arms much wider than I expected; a philadelphus, which has never done well and which I’ve been threatening to dig out for as long as I’ve been writing this blog, and probably before that; a Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’, which was originally one plant and now has somehow turned into three (large) shrubs; another small tree, a Euonymus europaeus ‘Red Sentinel’; and a Viburnum tinus ‘Gwenllian’.  (There was originally a magnolia as well, which didn’t last long.  Why did I think that was a good idea?)  Oh yes, and there’s also a rose, Rosa ‘Old Blush China’, which I always forget about because it’s now underneath the honeysuckle.

Viburnum tinus 'Gwenllian' (the healthy bit)

The main problem, apart from the age of the plants, which are becoming rather elderly, turned out to be the Viburnum tinus, planted at the centre of things.  Some people find them foul-smelling, but I can’t say I’ve ever noticed.  I have two V. tinus – there’s another at the side of the house, donated by a friend who had no space for it – but ‘Gwenllian’ is the more attractive of the two; it has pink-tinged flowers in winter, followed by shiny blue berries.  I’m hoping to keep it, but to cut it back to a more manageable size.  It has several large, spreading branches, some of which have died back, and all of which were host to swathes of ivy.  Being squeezed into a too-small area, it has shot upwards and out, across what was originally intended to be a woodland path.  This part of the plant is flowering and berrying well, and, although it will have to go in due course, I’ve left it for the time being, concentrating on removing the dead bits and cutting back some of the spindly shoots struggling up towards the light.  There is still more to be done here, but the weather has turned wet again, leaving me with a large pile of dead wood to dispose of and a lot more ivy to rip out!

This is meant to be a path ...

Meanwhile, out in the less congested parts of the garden, the daffodils are doing well, including ‘Jenny’ in the front garden, and last year’s ‘Exotic Emperor’ tulips are flowering impressively in their pot.

Narcissus 'Jenny'

Tulip 'Exotic Emperor'