Up and down

April is delivering its usual up-and-down weather (mostly down so far).  A week or so ago I managed a lunch outside on the bench, but we're back in chilly and showery mode and I'm not even feeling much like working outside, let alone eating.  Yesterday we had snow, sleet and hail in the showers; I had been putting the sweet peas outside to harden off for a few hours each day, but yesterday I left them tucked up in the cold frame.  Today they're outside again; they will have to learn to get on with this weather sometime!  At least the east wind has turned so it's less chilly, though rather wet.

The garden is in its yellow phase - daffodils, cowslips, doronicums, celandines, epimediums - with a little blue and purple (grape hyacinths, brunnera just starting, anemone blanda, the first of the honesty, a few pansies from the winter bedding).  The first tulip to open was also yellow; this was one of the ones by the dining room window which I thought I had dug up, but three of them obviously escaped (need to decide what to do about them).  The little red tulips in the front garden are just beginning to open, and some of the ones in pots are well into bud.

The greenhouse is getting into spring mode; the bubblewrap has been removed, dahlias and freesia bulbs potted up and the propagator is on.  The gazanias, salpiglossis and ipomoea have germinated in the propagator and are now on the new greenhouse shelving; some of the tomatoes have sprouted too and will be removed soon.  Strangely, the old 'Gardeners' Delight' seed has germinated more quickly than the new 'Sungold' seed; why? 

The nuthatches are persisting with the nestbox, despite the woodpecker still showing occasional interest and one of the neighbourhood cats pawing the box from the summerhouse roof and knocking it askew (we carefully straightened it up again).  Ratty is also still about; it seems to have a hideout under the shrubs at the side of the patio where there's thick ivy as well as much (unintended) undergrowth, so a clearout there is planned when the weather permits.  However we've had a couple of welcome visitors: a brief appearance from a small warbler (willow warbler?), and a longer visit from a male blackcap.  I think we've only seen a blackcap in this garden once in the twenty-odd years we've been here.  He was probably on migration (as I expect the warbler was too), making a pitstop while on his way elsewhere; from Friday to Sunday morning he was a regular at the suet feeder and the blackbirds' apple (he loved the apple), then disappeared, presumably refreshed and refuelled for the next stage of his journey.  I hope he calls in again on his way back south in the autumn.

The song thrush is also still about (to the blackbirds' annoyance), probably nesting, and the bullfinches too.  The long-tailed tits must also be nesting somewhere near; they're also still coming to the suet feeder.  The robins love the suet but one of them isn't confident about hanging on the feeder; today, delightfully, it sat on the pole holding up the feeder while its mate passed it bits of suet as a present.

Unwelcome visitors

The true wildlife lover, I suspect, treats all wildlife equally.  I don't find this comes naturally, especially regarding the garden; I will go out of my way to look after ladybirds but ruthlessly deal with greenfly (currently inhabiting the lettuce in the greenhouse).  We had some undesirable wildlife around this week, and I don't particularly mean the buzzard (still regularly overflying our end of the village) and the red kite that turns up from time to time.  The nuthatch pair, now busily applying mud to the outside of the nestbox to make it more homely, had a nasty moment when the greater spotted woodpecker dropped in to inspect the box.  I like the woodpecker, even though I know they take nestlings, but I like the nuthatches more and don't want their young to become woodpecker lunch.  Fortunately Woodie has no hope at all of breaking into the nestbox (it's made of terracotta), but I'm starting to see the point of the mud, if it makes the entrance hole too small for a woodpecker's head.

The other undesirable visitor was a rat which came to the patio to pick up droppings from the suet feeder and to nibble the apple left out for the blackbirds.  (Ironically, the blackbirds are much keener on the suet than the apple; the female blackbird can just reach the fatballs from an unsteady perch on the metal pole holding the feeder.)  I think it's an old rat; it looks a bit mangy and didn't hear me approaching.  It took refuge in the woodpile and I haven't seen it since; I have been taking a more lenient attitude to the local cats when they come into the garden (although on the whole I regard them as unwelcome visitors too!).

Woodie's less predatory cousin the green woodpecker has been drumming optimistically for a mate, and a tawny owl has been calling occasionally from nearby.

Good wildlife this week has included a song thrush, the long-tailed tit pair still coming to the suet feeder, and a pair each of goldfinches and bullfinches.  Flying insects are also coming out, including the first butterfly of the year (a brimstone, as usual).

The weather is still chilly, even when the sun is out, and recent showers have included sleet, snow and hail.  The flowers are coming out only slowly, with most of the main-season daffodils in bloom, some muscari starting and a few tulip buds showing, but little else at present.  At least the daffs are keeping us in cut flowers.  Seed sowing in the greenhouse has started, and the propagator is already full (with some double-decking); a new shelving unit has been assembled and is awaiting the rush of seedtrays ....

Bed and board

Our elderly and decrepit buddleja has now had its annual prune, which always opens up the views down the garden (it may be elderly but it's big when in full growth).  While I was working away at it I heard a dull banging noise, which turned out to be coming from the summerhouse.  The summerhouse is equally elderly and decrepit and has several holes in the woodwork (it's due for a complete rebuild this year); a bird had got in through one of the holes and was ricocheting from one window to another trying to find a way out.  When I unlocked the door, the panicky ball of feathers stopped pinballing around for long enough for me to see that it was a nuthatch (which promptly made a quick exit).  Last year they nested in the nestbox on the side of the summerhouse, so they're apparently considering a return; today one of them was speculatively trying to stick mud to the nestbox wall, as they did last year, so with any luck we'll have them with us again this spring.  Time to put up defences against the local cats; one of them tried to climb the summerhouse wall last time.

The relatively mild winter meant that we had fewer bird species in the garden - presumably enough food elsewhere - but now the need for nesting sites and some fast food to keep them going through the busy times ahead seems to be bringing them back into the garden.  The latest bird to find the suet feeder is a long-tailed tit, which has now brought along its mate and they've been coming daily; a coal tit and goldfinch have also appeared at the seed feeder, and a collared dove (haven't seen one of those in the garden all winter, most unusually).  Another new development is that a buzzard has been hunting overhead on several days; they appear over the field behind us from time to time, but not usually right over the house.  I wonder if it's nesting nearby?

Signs of spring: the blackbirds are starting to sing, quietly, the sparrows are collecting nesting material

Honeysuckle flowers (if you look closely ....)

and the first bumblebees have turned up, enjoying the winter honeysuckle and the rosemary flowers in particular.  The daffodils are continuing to open, and other flowers are waking up from their winter dormancy; the honeysuckle by the compost corner has some flowers just waiting to open.  The weather is still on the chilly side, especially as the wind is mostly from the northeast, but dry, and when the sun came out today it started to feel quite pleasant (if you were wrapped up!).

Status quo ante

Hellebore - self-seeded into the path

Back after 3 weeks away, and I was rather expecting to see more colour in the garden - but no, it all looks very similar to how it was when we left.  Although some of the daffodils had looked to be on the point of flowering when we went, only one of the big daffs (in the lawn by the septic tank) is half-opened.  There are some Tete-a-tetes in full bloom in various pots (including a pot in the cold frame which I thought contained crocus bulbs! - I really must get better at labelling bulbs that have been lifted), and some crocuses too.  Otherwise there are the snowdrops (the later ones; the earlies are going over) and wallflowers, the hellebores, the 'Whitewell Purple' crocuses at the bottom of the garden, and a few doronicums and epimediums.  One of the osmanthuses is starting to flower too.  The lawn does look greener than when we went away, although maybe that's just because, in Norway, any grass not covered in snow at this time of year is bleached grey-brown and anything looks green in comparison.

At least nothing much seems to have suffered in our absence.  The weather has been relatively benign for this time of year; some frost, a fair amount of rain and wind, but nothing extreme.  Some of the broad bean plants are looking the worse for the wear and one or two may be past saving, but otherwise the only damage in the veg patch is where Something has dug into the bean trench in the hope of finding food, but that's easily remedied.

On closer inspection, there are signs that the seasons are moving forward.  The transplanted gooseberry bushes are putting out nice green shoots and the blackcurrant bush that was moved is also budding nicely.  Rose bushes are starting to leaf and the first annual weed seedlings are showing - always a sign that spring is springing.  The weather at the moment is an early-March mix of chill, light night frosts, occasional snow showers and surprisingly warm sunshine.  The birds seem more sprightly too; a thrush that we heard singing a couple of times before we left is still around in the distance, and the blackbirds are getting territorial.

Imogen and the Sword of Damocles

Another week, another gale - Storm Imogen.  This meant two days of ferocious wind and rain.  Yet more wood has dropped out of the ash trees, including the Sword of Damocles - a small branch that came down in the big ash tree in a previous gale but jammed in a lower branch and swung there menacingly right above the bottom flower bed.  Imogen dislodged it, but fortunately it doesn't seem to have done any damage when it finally fell.  I didn't want to be underneath it when it went, though.

Although we've had some fresher weather, and one brief hail shower, it's still mostly very mild for this time of year.  The ground is very wet; there was even a big puddle in the field across the road, a rare sight in these parts.  Colder nights are forecast for later in the week.  More 'Whitewell Purple' crocuses are out, and a few 'Cream Beauty' in one of the pots are well into bud. 

The robin has paired up, a little warily; the two of them are regular visitors under the fat ball container.  The female blackbird has mastered the art of flying onto the pole and reaching across to the fat, and the coal tit has also cottoned on to the new food source.  The sparrow clan are the main beneficiaries, however; there are just so many of them.

One day, for no obvious reason, we had ten woodpigeons poking around at the bottom of the garden.  Usually we see four at most, and usually fighting, but that day it was all quite peaceable.

Mr (or Mrs) Mole continues to be very active, throwing up piles of earth where I bedded in the young aquilegia plants last year and among the sweet william.

Gath'ring winter fuel

Crocus 'Whitewell Purple'

With all this wind, a lot of twigs (and a few bits of branches) have come down from the ash trees.  The neighbours' one in particular has shed a lot onto the veg plot.  I had been piling them up on a vacant bed, but have now filled three compost sacks with them; a good store of kindling for the fire!  A much smaller pile is sitting by the summerhouse, having fallen out of the big tree in the field, and today I found the first crocus (Crocus tommasinianus 'Whitewell Purple') of the year flowering happily among the debris.  The snowdrops (G. atkinsii) nearby are fully out; not a bad display considering I thought I had dug them all up!  I planted the dug-up bulbs in a pot (for want of anywhere better just at the moment) but they aren't doing anything; perhaps I'll revert to the traditional method of moving them 'in the green'.

Galanthus atkinsii

Cyclamen coum

Daffs already in bud!

As for the wind, we had more gales last week and there are yet more forecast for tonight.  It's mild and damp, and the spring flowers are thriving; there are daffodils in bud under the plum tree and in the front garden and it's not even February yet.  There's also a nice clump of Cyclamen coum down under the winter honeysuckle; rather out of sight and out of mind, but welcome all the same.  I'm not taking chances with the weather, though.  I've cut off the old leaves from the epimediums to let the flowers come through unimpeded, but E. sulphureum, which is facing the prevailing wind, has a 'hat' of old cut leaves on top so that the flowers aren't blasted by the gales.  And yesterday we had a short snow shower; it clearly wasn't going to lie, but it was a warning that winter isn't done with us yet.

A satisfying weekend's gardening: shallots planted, one-and-a-half veg beds dug over and a bean trench started, a self-sown ash stump which had been difficult to remove dug out, old hellebore leaves removed, wisteria and small apple tree pruned, and various other small tasks done.  And last week I dug over and weeded a patch in front of the pear cordons so that the daffodil bulbs (Narcissus 'Silver Chimes') and Allium cowanii could go in (better late than never!); the last of the tender and tender-ish plants were also removed from their pot and put in the safety of the greenhouse.

Not a bad tally for the Big Garden Birdwatch, given that the mild weather is keeping many birds out in the

Viburnum, comfrey and wallflower

fields: eleven sparrows, four woodpigeons, two of blue tit, great tit, blackbird and dunnock, and a robin, wren, chaffinch and greater spotted woodpecker.

This week's cut flowers are Viburnum tinus 'Gwenlian', comfrey 'Hidcote Pink' and wallflower 'Sunset Red'.

Blowing away the frost

Frosty weather

The English winter is starting to resemble the English summer: not so much two days of sun and then a thunderstorm, as two days of frost and then more gales.  A few frosty nights and chilly days have given way to damp and murk, and today we are having the first blast of a storm which has blanketed the east coast of the US in snow.  We won't get any snow, just more rain and high winds.  Business as usual.


The frosts were hard enough not to clear in the shade, and even where the surface frost melted, the ground was still hard.  The tender plants are mostly all tucked up in the greenhouse, but the outdoor plants did look quite striking with the frost on them.  The end of last week and the weekend were very mild for January - I found a ladybird on one of the blackcurrant bushes.  Yesterday I pruned the big apple tree, trying to resist the temptation to cut away too much wood; taking out all the watershoots would just result in more of them, and I hope I've stayed the right side of the line this year! I also managed a little digging over of bits of the veg plot, and tied up the broad bean plants.  That should really have been done earlier, as the wind had flattened them and they were flagging in the frost.  They've since perked up nicely, although they're a little bent!  I hope their tops will straighten up now they're tied to their supports. Otherwise it hasn't really been weather for doing much outside.  The shallots have arrived, so planting them out will be a priority once the soil is workable again.

Geranium leaves

Viburnum davidii in the frost

The tits and sparrows have been enthusiastically enjoying the fatballs, getting through them at a great rate; they're now rationed, at least until the weather gets chilly again.