Spem in Allium

I must get better at watering the garden, particularly the veg patch.  The weather has been mostly warm, dry and breezy, and thin, poor soil like ours dries out very quickly in conditions like that.  The shallots, which hadn't made a lot of top growth, were looking very parched, and the garlic tops had started to fall over; I noticed that other blog posters were lifting theirs, so I did likewise and let them dry off for a day (now moved into the greenhouse in anticipation of rain).  I have to admit that I grow the edible alliums more in hope than expectation; they don't do particularly well in our dry conditions.  I gave up growing onions - the sets tended to come out of the ground not much bigger than when they went in, and good onions are easy to come by - but have persevered with shallots and garlic (and leeks, but they were sown late this year and are still very small).  The shallots are always small, but that suits my cooking style, and I can live with small garlic bulbs.  Actually, this year's garlic (Early Purple Wight) has produced a couple of decent-sized heads, so I'm quite pleased with that.

The broad beans, now de-topped, have fewer blackfly, but the pesky critters are appearing everywhere - on the runner beans, the parsley, even some of the poppies.  A few borlotti beans have gone in, as have a couple of the plants from the second sowing of the courgettes.  In the greenhouse, the tomatoes and aubergines are in their growbags and doing well.

Earlier in the year, I took advantage of a non-windy day (we don't get many of those) to use up old weedkiller sitting around in the garage and sprayed the overgrown half of the veg plot.  I have finally started to clear the dead grasses from this, starting with a space for a rhubarb plant ('Timperley Early') bought during the winter and languishing in its little pot since then.  The existing rhubarb plants are very elderly, seriously overgrown and in poor soil, so this is by way of starting again.  The prompt to plant the rhubarb was actually the need to bury deceased wildlife, always a bit of a problem in shallow soil unless the dear departed is quite small.  I once had to bury a fully grown rabbit found dead on the front garden path, presumably left there by a fox as rabbits don't usually expire naturally outside people's front doors, even in the country.  My usual practice is to put them under a plant which isn't going to be moved for a very long time, so that they don't get dug up by accident (my squeamishness rather than respect for the creature, admittedly); the rabbit went under a hellebore at the side of the house, which responded by growing extremely well.  The soil in the rhubarb patch is relatively deep (a full spade's-depth), so it was a good spot to dispose of the latest carcasses - the remains of a pigeon found under the aquilegia on the edge of the patio, and a squirrel found under the big ash tree at the bottom of the garden.  I'm guessing that the pigeon may have been an old bird that chose the shelter of the plants as a place to die - pigeons do seek out a sheltered spot when their time is up - although there wasn't a great deal left apart from the wings by the time I found it under the leaves.  The squirrel is a bit of a mystery; it looked like a young one, and it was almost under the bottom fence, which would have been a strange place for a cat to have left it.  There was some dead wood from the ash tree nearby, so I suppose it's possible that the squirrel's weight brought down a rotten branch and it was killed in the fall (do squirrels ever fall out of trees?).  Anyway, both are now contributing to the fertility of the soil under the rhubarb plant, and I hope it thrives.

The raspberry suckers have started bearing fruit (they're always well ahead of the 'official' plants), and there are lots of gooseberries, mostly on the old plants that I haven't dug out yet.  My pruning of the plants I want to keep was obviously too severe; there are a few, nice big, fruits but not many.  The blackbirds are very partial to them but fortunately are focusing their attention on the smaller fruit, which are easier for them to get at; I picked one side of the bush while my friendly female blackbird picked the other side.  The newest blackcurrant bush has some lovely strings of fruit on it, so it has been fleeced up to keep the birds off.

The sunny and dry weather is to break down into rain from tomorrow - a chance to do some potting up and sowing in the greenhouse.  It has been a bit too hot in there to do much of that lately, although it has been ideal for drying off the bulbs lifted from the patio pots.

Bugs and beasties

At this time of year, the garden changes so rapidly that, after being away for more than a week, it's something of a shock to come back and find lots of new colour in the beds.  Most of the roses are out, as are the Dianthus, sweet rocket, Allium cristophii, the big red poppies, the rampant pink geraniums and the Alchemilla mollis (and a whole lot of other smaller things).  The Sweet William are also coming out, and looking quite good.  The Philadelphus is coming out too - even the big one in the back garden which I've been threatening to remove for ages now.

Closer inspection, however, shows not all is as well as it might be.  The Verbascum 'Violetta' in the bottom

Mullein moth caterpillars on 'Violetta'

border have thrown up several spikes of bloom, which were doing not too badly until the mullein moth caterpillars moved in.  Decision time: should I consign the lot of them to the recycling bin, or be wildlife-friendly and leave them be?  The plants probably won't flower again this year anyway, but then the caterpillars will presumably turn into moths and come back again next year.  Maybe they'll come back again next year anyway.  'Violetta' isn't the chunkiest of Verbascums and doesn't make as much of a statement as she might - and a statement is what is needed down there if it's to be visible from the house - so should I keep them?  For the time being, they're still there, caterpillars (growing fatter by the day) and all.

There is also a proliferation of blackfly on the broad beans.  In recent years I've been disinclined to pinch out the tops, as recommended; blackfly stopped being much of a problem, and one year there were none at all.  This year there are lots of them, which serves me right for being so cavalier; I must remember to do it earlier in future!  There is also a lot of aphid infestation on the apple trees, and some powdery mildew on one of the cordons.  I've been going over the trees, thinning fruit and pulling off the contorted leaves that show where the aphid eggs are.  Some of them have hatched in the recycling wheelie bin, and have climbed out and are sitting on the bin lid; since it's green, perhaps they assume it's a plant, albeit not a very edible one.  They don't seem to be going anywhere, which is good.

Before we went away, I managed to plant out the Cosmos and Didiscus in the cutting bed and the bottom border, and the runner beans and remaining brassicas in the veg plot; all a bit haphazard, but most of them are doing ok.  The current job is planting the tomatoes and aubergines in growbags in the greenhouse, and planting up the patio pots (a bit belatedly).

Several weeks ago, while weeding dandelions out of the lawn, I noticed a couple of long, spotted leaves

Common Spotted Orchid in the lawn

growing near the smaller apple tree.  They were immediately fenced off from the lawnmower, and have now sprouted a flower: as I suspected, a Common Spotted Orchid.  I hope it seeds.  (The two Twayblade plants by the plum tree have also been protected from mowing, but neither has flowered.)

The nuthatches seem to have moved out of the nestbox immediately after my last post, and have vanished completely; I hope they're just keeping out of sight in the tree canopy.  The blackbirds are feeding another brood, and somewhere near there's a thrush singing, presumably while his mate is on her nest.  A few more baby sparrows are about, and there are tits, dunnocks and the usual pair of pigeons around; the robins are no longer much in evidence, and the partridges have gone.  A young woodpecker comes regularly to the peanut feeder.

The weather has warmed up; apparently quite good while we were away, and now a heatwave is building up; hot today, and forecast to be hotter tomorrow.  To be followed by thunderstorms, of course.

Nuthatched

Nuthatch activity in and out of the nestbox suggests that their eggs have hatched and they're feeding the little ones.  This has been going on for a good couple of weeks now, so I would expect them to leave the nest soon, but there's no sign of the youngsters yet.  They're probably in no hurry to leave such a safe place; the nestbox is terracotta, and the parents have customised it with mud sealing up the inspection holes, so it must be quite snug as well.  The weather has been cool all month, with some warmish sunshine but a lot of chilly wind and temperatures still in the low teens, so the great outdoors can't seem all that appealing to a small bird!

The baby blackbirds have dispersed, and the parents are presumably now on a second brood, although the female is around more than I would have expected if she were hatching; I hope nothing has happened to her nest.  There has been a single baby sparrow down, though there's much activity around the nest sites.  Lots of other birds; the pair of linnets is still around, also a pair of goldfinches; a long-tailed tit came to the kitchen window one day, and a goldcrest was hunting for spiders round the waste bins; and yesterday a jay turned up and learned how to get onto the peanut container.  The two partridges still come daily; one of them has been sitting on the fleece covering my cabbage plants, which probably explains why they're looking rather squashed.

The cold weather hasn't encouraged me to plant out the runner beans, but I need to do that soon.  The 'Ferrari' and 'Borlotti' beans haven't germinated well, so I may have another go at them; and only one courgette has germinated, so I'll sow a few more.  The leeks were sown late but are now germinating.  I've taken to starting dill and coriander off in the cold frame and planting out, which seems to work quite well; there are a few parsley plants coming along in the same way.

Yesterday I finally bit the bullet and planted out those dahlias that are ready to go outside.  'Ambition', despite being a bit shrivelled in storage, was the first up and seems to be doing ok; 'Karma Choc' has done nothing at all.  I rescued two half-price bargains from the garden centre, a 'Bishop of Llandaff' and 'David Howard', and they are now also coming along, a little more slowly.  They've gone into the new border between the patio and the hedge, where I can keep an eye on any undesirable weeds coming up, with the zinnias for company.

'Silver Parrot'

'Purple Jacket' with Bellis

'Creme Upstar' with Anthemis

The tulips are now mostly past, although there are still a few 'Havran' in bloom and also the 'Angelique' and 'Black Hero' pairing in the big pot ('Uncle Tom' also did well here but was mostly over by the time the other two came along).  Most of the tulips in the smaller pots did poorly; too dry, too crowded or too overwhelmed by the wallflowers and forget-me-nots?  'Purple Jacket' was good (if rather more pink than purple), and so were the 'Silver Parrots'; I also liked 'Creme Upstar', although it was rather too delicate and subtle to make much of a statement.  'La Belle Epoque' looked very sickly, and I'm not sure if that was just the colour that it was or whether the poor growth affected it; the flowers lasted hardly any time and I'm not sure I'd grow it again.  'Antraciet' and 'Cairo' were both good, but 'Cairo' flowered much later so the combination didn't really work.  'Veronique Sanson' and 'Jan Reus' never made it up through the wallflowers.  Note to self: the wallflowers pair well with the earlier tulips but are going over by the time the May ones come along, which doesn't enhance the overall effect.

The aquilegias are out, and I'm making a note of the good ones for future use.  Some of the ones grown last year from seed are in flower, and include a purple and white bicolour and a lovely plain cream one; there are also several pink and white bicolours.

I'm steeling myself to pull up the forget-me-nots soon.  I always leave plants until all the flowers are finished, but by then the earlier flowers have seeded, and I have far too many forget-me-nots about the place as it is; so they're for the recycling bin sometime very soon.

One swallow

It doesn't make it summer, of course, but the first swallow showed up today, swooping low round the garden in search of insects.  It would be nice to think he might consider nesting here, but it's not likely.  We used to get house martins nesting under the roof, until the run of wet summers set in; when the rain came in 2007 they abandoned their nesting plans and moved away, and have never re-established here.

There has been lots of bird activity.  The nuthatches are still in the nestbox.  The blackbird fledglings (at least three of them) are out and about and very demanding, keeping their parents busy; the hen bird is very trusting and comes up close to me when I'm working in the garden.  Yesterday I checked over and repotted a lot of plants left from last year's village plant sales, in preparation for this year's, and found some with vine weevil grubs in the roots; these I fed to the blackbird who was delighted with them.  There's a pair of song thrushes, also apparently collecting food for young, as are the robins; there are at least two pairs of robins, so it's difficult to keep track of which is which!  There are three male blackbirds about too, with a fair bit of scrapping.  Lots of sparrows, as always, busy collecting nesting material; a pigeon fight resulted in some loose feathers on the lawn, which the sparrows immediately seized upon and carried up into our roof!  We've also had greenfinches, chaffinches, goldfinches and a pair of linnets; blue and great tits; a pair of wrens, several dunnocks and a very stroppy collared dove which fights with the pigeons.  The starlings are nesting in their usual place in the roof.  A mistle thrush showed up one day, and the two partridges appear most days, occasionally checking on the broad bean patch which has now been thoroughly staked to keep them off.

The butterfly count is increasing; today I spotted an orange tip, and a female large white.  Lots of bees.

The daffodils are fading, with only 'Jenny' and the pheasants-eye types still looking good (the 'Geranium' ones have been cut for the house).  I'm pleased with 'Jenny'; she sets off the front garden nicely, as does the new tulip 'Sweetheart'.  Interestingly, this has lovely broad, cream-margined leaves; no description of 'Sweetheart' that I can find mentions this, but I'm thinking that it may be the main attraction of this variety for me from now on!  The early yellow tulips are past, the small red ones are out and some of the others just opening; a few 'Havran' down in the bottom border, and some of the 'Uncle Tom's in the big pot.  'Silver Parrot' is in full bud.  The only other ones open are two lovely pink ones ('Sherwood'?), a relic of planting from several years ago, down under the rosemary, and making a lovely pairing; I always forget about them until they pop up.  The camellia is fading, messily as always, but it has been lovely.  The other colour is from the Brunnera, Doronicums and the honesty.

The sweet peas were planted out today, against the wall in the corner of the veg plot; the January-sown ones are still rather weedy and the germination rate wasn't all that good, so I may supplement with some sowing in situ.  The potatoes are planted, and the broad beans are all now sown, with the runner and French beans are germinating in the greenhouse.  The race is on to clear enough of the veg patch to allow me to plant out all the things I've got in the cold frame!  The propagator is full, mostly with half-hardy annuals, and with some double-decking to accommodate everything; even so, there's more that needs sowing.  There's never enough time, or enough room, at this time of year!

The wind has turned to the east again, and is quite breezy at times; yesterday I managed lunch on the bench, but today I gave up half-way through as it was just too windy.  Although it has been cold when the sun isn't out - Sunday was particularly chilly - we've had two days of lovely sunny weather and much better temperatures.  It has been quite dry, though; only one wet night recently, and the watering can has been in use.  Rain is forecast for the end of the week.

Nuthatching

We have a pair of nuthatches nesting in the nestbox.  They're going in and out intermittently, but not often enough to suggest that the eggs have hatched yet - although I did hear cheeping from somewhere down in that corner of the garden the other day.  We're looking forward to seeing the youngsters.  A wren has also been seen collecting moss down at that end of the garden; there were wren families down there last year, so we're hopeful.  The blackbird brood has hatched and the parents are busy collecting food; the apples put out on the patio are gratefully received!  Other wildlife in the garden has included five bullfinches together (three males and two females), a slowworm basking in the veg patch and, less pleasingly, a rat (probably dislodged when a logpile was uncovered).  We're having regular visits from a pair of partridges who enjoy dustbathing in the broad bean patch; deterring them is proving difficult!

After a long period of easterly and northerly winds, and mostly dry but chilly weather, we had a spell of gales from the west, followed by a warm and sunny Easter weekend, and it has been mostly sunny and dry since then.  The sun brought out the butterflies all of a sudden: a peacock, a tortoiseshell and a brimstone (also a few small things that moved too fast for identification).

The gales knocked over the wheelie bin, which had a lot of thin polythene dustsheeting in it; most of this blew away and, although I managed to retrieve some of it, there are shreds of it fluttering from the tops of the ash trees like demented prayer flags.  I hope it breaks down soon.

Camellia 'Donation'

Cowslip patch

The daffodils are fully out, and the tulips are starting; the early yellow ones by the dining room window are 
out and some of the ones in pots are well in bud.  The Epimedium sulphureum is in bloom (I managed to cut the leaves off this year before the flowers came up), as are the Doronicums and Brunnera; the Pulmonaria is coming out, and the lily of the valley is already in bud.  The Camellia 'Donation' in the pot in the front garden is doing beautifully, despite being knocked around a bit by the wind, and the cowslip patch in the lawn (now also boasting a number of primroses and various hybrids) is in full flower.  Meanwhile I'm trying to weed more parts of the veg plot to house the seedlings now coming up in the cold frame, and also to get out as many of the pink geraniums as I can before they take over.  The blackbirds are very appreciative of all the digging!

Survivors

One of my vaguer garden plans is to do something with the ground under the ash tree at the edge of the drive.  It gets plenty of sun, despite the leaf cover, so should be able to host a variety of plants; and, as it forms a major part of the view from the kitchen window, something more than the current bare(ish) soil would be nice.  The big problem is that the soil is so full of roots just below the surface that it's difficult even to poke a hand fork in there; a slightly lesser problem is the variety of weeds (ground elder, ivy, creeping buttercup and various small annuals) that inhabit the space.  A few years ago I managed to get a few erythronium bulbs in, but since then the area has had all sorts of stuff - pallets, piles of firewood - plonked on it.  The stuff was cleared last autumn and I applied a blast of weedkiller to such weeds as had survived, then sowed some hardy annual seeds there - more in hope than expectation, as the seeds were mostly from very old packets that had probably passed their sell-by date.  The other day I looked it over to see what was germinating; as I expected, it's the usual weedy suspects with no sign of anything resembling desirable plants - other than, amazingly, an erythronium leaf coming up.  So the short-term plan is now to weed out the undesirables (fiddly but relatively easy), cosset the erythronium with some blood, fish and bonemeal, apply some compost and raise some plug plants to fill the space.  All I need to do then is to keep next door's cat off it.

Late last year, finding myself short of time to get the tulips planted, I only partly cleared out the big pot at the bottom of the garden; just enough to get the new tulips in, but leaving some of the summer planting in place.  I dug out bits of the Nepeta variegata and potted them up for overwintering in the greenhouse (where they're doing quite nicely), but obviously some of the Nepeta survived in the pot, and surprisingly it's still there, despite being in quite an exposed position.  Being a low-growing plant, it must have had some protection from the penstemon and euphorbias around it.

Another surprise is a whole lot of cyclamen seedlings coming up between the paving slabs at the side of the house.  They look like Cyclamen coum, despite being some distance from the C. coums in the garden; the C. hederifoliums are closer.  Perhaps a mouse hid the seeds there?  It's a bit far for ants to have moved them. The ones lodged between the paving and the house wall can stay, I suppose - I don't expect they'll cause problems there, and it's an uninteresting area otherwise - but I don't want them between the slabs.  If I can get some of them out without too much damage, I'll pot them on; they might be candidates for under the ash tree!

The snowdrops are mostly over now, but most of the crocuses are still doing well (especially 'Cream Beauty'; 'Blue Pearl' is fading) and the blue Anemone blandas are starting.  The daffodils are very late this year - not sure why - with the first big ones (in the front garden) only opening the other day.  The little 'Tete-a-tete's have been open for a couple of weeks, but the other small daffs are still in bud.  The first show is usually from the big yellow daffs under the plum tree, but all but one clump there is coming up blind and the others are still to open.  Some of the other clumps are looking short on buds too.  They will be quite old bulbs; many were in the garden when we came here, and the ones under the plum tree were planted soon after we arrived 20+ years ago.  This may be an opportunity to replace the big varieties with something more delicate and graceful, though getting rid of the blind ones may be easier said than done; digging in the plum tree roots is neither practicable nor desirable.

Recent jobs in the garden have been the first cut of the lawn, trying to dig out bramble roots, planting a Mahonia 'Winter sun' to screen the view of the electric substation across the road and starting off the dahlias in the greenhouse.  Last year's 'Jescot Julie' produced a single giant tuber like a monster pear; 'Bishop of Auckland' has multiplied into three plants; and 'Ambition' is looking rather shrivelled, but I've planted it up in the hope that it might produce at least something from which I might take cuttings.  This year I've added 'Karma Choc', 'Juliet' and 'Blue Bayou', all now left to do their thing in a corner of the greenhouse.

The weather has been chilly, with an easterly wind, but mostly dry; this week the wind is from the north-west and is a mix of sunshine and showers (hail showers today).  A frost is forecast for tonight.

Bee activity is picking up, and there were two ladybirds basking in the sunshine in the bottom of the big potentilla in the lawn (which I will get rid of one of these days!).  One of the female blackbirds has become quite trusting, and lets me get quite close; the male is warier.  The blackbirds are starting to sing properly, and I heard a thrush yesterday.  A red kite, being hassled by a group of crows, and a pair of buzzards have been hunting over the field behind us; today a flock of redwings and fieldfares were scouring it.  And a female tawny owl has been calling in the evenings quite close by.

Back to spring

Back home after three weeks away, to find definite signs of spring in the garden.  Neighbours report that the weather has been chilly and windy, but the greenhouse's max/min thermometer shows that the sun had warmed it on at least one day well into the 20s, and the vents have opened at least twice since we came back.  When the sun comes out there is definitely warmth there, but the weather is still well able to revert to cold, windy and wet (like today).  That's March for you.

The snowdrops and cyclamen coum are all still out, as are the crocuses - some nice displays in the patio pots, appreciated yesterday by several bees.  The tete-a-tete daffodils came out this week to cheer things up further, and of course the hellebores are opening nicely.  There are a couple of violet flowers out down in the bottom border, and the first signs of brunnera flowers.  Inevitably the weeds are also starting to sprout, telling me that it's time to sow seeds!

The blackbirds and robins at least are building nests; we've also seen a pair of each of chaffinch, greenfinch and bullfinch, as well as blue and great tits.  A pheasant and a few partridges have also been around from time to time, and I saw the first bumblebee of the year around the big hellebore the other day - spring is on the way!