Catching up

Mixed old shrub roses ....

Catching up, both with the blog and with the garden, after a trip away.  Things are looking very lush, very green and romantically flowery (at least in certain corners).  The roses are all out (or, in the case of the yellow pimpinellifolia, been and gone); they've done well this year - obviously my pruning paid dividends this time.  A jugful of them is on the table at the moment.  Recent cut flowers have all been from the garden - roses, peonies, and earlier, a jug of sweet william, pinks and lady's mantle (the pinks have also flowered well).  The aquilegias are over, but there are some good foxgloves down in the bottom border (and a rather less good self-sown mullein, complete with very impressive mullein moth caterpillars).  The annuals were planted out, or put out in mixed pots, before we went away; the odd cosmos has flowered but the main show is still to come.  I'm pleased with the pink ipomoea, though; they grew on well, no damping off, and are now flowering successfully in the big pot at the bottom of the garden, with a blue penstemon for company.  The windowbox needs replanting; the current incumbents, a pair of blue violas from the garden centre and some of last year's calendulas - a lovely bright pairing when in full flow - are looking very sad now.

... and sweet william with pinks

In the veg plot, some batch sowings of beans are getting underway, and the courgette plants are managing well enough for the moment.  The two winter squash plants have both died; I'm not doing well with those!  The lettuces have done well, however, in their fleece tent.  In the greenhouse, the neighbours' ministrations kept the tomatoes and aubergines, in their growbags, settling in nicely, and flower trusses are now setting.

This year I've got at the green gooseberries early, and have made jam; there are still quite a few to pick, but I'm more relaxed now about the blackbirds going in there.  The red ones are still colouring up, as are the blackcurrants; I've put a fleece tent around one of the blackcurrant bushes, which I hope will keep the birds off!

The robins' brood seems to have fledged and gone; before we left there were three quite friendly little ones about, but no sign of them now, and the adults are singing lustily, suggesting that they're back on the nest.  The blackbirds are feeding quite large fledgelings, and the sparrows and starlings are also taking food away; and there were two little thrushes following a parent around the other day.  Various finches are about too, a nuthatch was pecking about in the big ash tree one day and young woodpeckers have been coming to the peanuts.  The jay has been back (and was scared off), and also the red kite; the latter was hunting quite low over the garden last week.

Weather has varied from wet to warm and sunny, with a thunderstorm thrown in.  The latter didn't deter a hedgehog which was snuffling around the cold frame, apparently quite oblivious to the lightning.  After a warm and dry week we're now back in the heavy showers phase.

Nearly Great Dixter

Too spotty, but colourful

When I planted red, dark purple and orange tulips in the bottom border, I didn’t reckon with them still being in flower when the pink rugosa rose started to bloom, not to mention the pink aquilegias that found their way into that border. The astrantia 'Hadspen Blood', also just starting to flower very nicely, is just the right side of the pink/red shades to be acceptable.  Fortunately the overlap was very short, and the orange tulips were by chance not close to the pink flowers, so the Great Dixter effect was avoided (just).  Actually that border could do with a bit more Great Dixter; it’s turning out a bit too pink and needs something to spice it up a bit.  And a memo for next year: either plant more tulips, or plant them in groups instead of sprinkling them across the whole border - the effect is too spotty otherwise.

The latest of the tulips, the little orange species ones, are also now going over.  They’ve proliferated very nicely, despite being sat on by a couple of self-set euphorbias.

Species tulips - urumiensis or batalinii?

The wisteria is in full, heavily scented, swing, and looking rather fine.  The early roses are out: Rosa altaica has responded remarkably well to the heavy, late pruning it received, and ‘Golden Showers’ is in flower although going through its blackspot stage.  The aquilegias are also flowering, as is the orange potentilla; just starting are the white camassias, the sweet rocket, some pinks, the Sweet William planted last year, and the numerous (too numerous) pink geraniums.  We also have some lady’s smock which has seeded into the lawn, next to some daffodil leaves that haven’t been mown back yet.

The contents of the greenhouse are being hardened off gradually, and accustomed to the rather cool and breezy world outside.  The weather went through a very warm and dry spell but has become very unsettled, with a mix of rain (and even some hail), wind, thunder and warm sunny spells.  Out of the sun it’s decidedly cool, and the forecast is for more of that to come.

I hope the rain holds off enough for me to clear more space in the veg plot so that I can plant out the remaining seedlings!  The lettuces have gone into a patch behind the gooseberry bushes which is really meant to be a grass path but had to be cleared so that I could get the weeds out; they have a fleece tent to keep the pigeons off but I'll need a much bigger fleece cover for the brassicas.

The summer birds are here, including the swifts screaming by, and a pair of linnets.  We’ve also seen a bat, and a newt in the pond (and lily beetles).  Other bird visitors include the male bullfinch and, twice today, a jay – unfortunately (but unsuccessfully) in search of a baby sparrow for lunch.  The sparrowhawk has had more success, making off with one of the little sparrows the other day.  There are a lot of baby birds about: we’ve seen blackbirds, robins and dunnocks, and two woodpigeons, besides the sparrows, and bluetits are taking food into the nestbox.  One of the robins is becoming quite friendly, probably because he's hoping I'll put more food out for him; he and his mate are very busy feeding youngsters at the moment.

Lazarus

When I first planted the garden, I envisaged a tiny glade with woodland-style plants in among the shrubs.  It didn't work out that way, not least because I very seriously underestimated how big the shrubs would become, and the paths into the glade were never properly maintained.  One plant I put in there was Solomon's Seal, but it succumbed to caterpillar attack and had its leaves shredded, and then it disappeared.  I haven't really got inside the tangle of shrubs for a number of years, until the other day when I started to tackle the over-large evergreen viburnum which is in need of some branch removal.  And there, under the viburnum and in deep shade, are several Solomon's Seals, just coming into flower.  How long have they been there and doing their thing quietly and unnoticed?  I thought they were long dead!

Something else I have been tackling is the summer jasmine, which keeps trying to climb into the summerhouse.  It has been severely hacked back, and the area around there properly weeded.  I plan to put in a grass path with small borders on either side; the bicoloured aquilegias are destined to go in there, at least while they bulk up.

Cowslip patch

The lily-of-the-valley has been early this year; for the first time I was able to pick a posy of them for May Day.  The late spring/early summer flowers are now starting: the first roses ('Mary Queen of Scots' again), the first wisteria flower, the first aquilegia bloom.  The choisia is well in flower, as are the blue camassias.  (Something has squashed some of the white ones; a cat?)  The cowslips are going over, and the hellebores have been deadheaded before they can set seed.

Several great bird sightings this past week: at the 'big' end of the scale, the red kite has been over, while at the other extreme, a goldcrest has been about.  It hovered at the library window the other day while hunting for spiders.  I hope it's nesting nearby.  I've seen one here before, a few years ago, but they're not something we see every year.  We also had a yellowhammer here the other day, and the first swallows feeding overhead; we'd seen a couple of them high above, presumably en route for elsewhere, but these are the first this year at feeding height.

The weather has been mixed, with some rain but good warm sunshine over the weekend (and some lunches outside on the bench), but today it was cool, showery and very windy.  Forecast is for more of the same.

The big race

It's that time of year when everything is growing rapidly, especially those plants that I don't want to grow - the weeds, and those plants which have become far more successful than I ever wanted them to be (eg the pink geranium).  And at this time of year I always get the sinking feeling that they will probably get away with it, because I won't have the time to deal with them.  With more time available this year, I hope to make more inroads into the general chaos than in the past, but the race between them and me is on.  With the help of a couple of bags of salt I have reduced the number of dandelions in the lawn, and regular patrols round the garden are keeping more or less on top of the flowering weeds (so far).

Tulips with Sweet Cicely and forget-me-nots

The new tulips ('Prinses Irene', 'Couleur Cardinal' and 'Havran') at the bottom of the garden are coming out nicely.  They're rather shorter than I expected but they're a great match for one another in size and shape of flower, they have good leaves and are a terrific colour combination; the Euphorbia characias and Erysimum 'Bowles Mauve' add to the fun (the latter is a particularly good companion).  On the subject of euphorbias, I had been assuming that all the big ones that come up in odd corners of the garden were the offspring of an E. characias I had years ago, but I've just noticed that one in the front garden has dark 'eyes' in the flowers, and looks more like E. wulfenii.  I wonder where that came from?

The centaurea is out, and so is the chaenomeles, although it's rather smothered by the honeysuckle so you can hardly see it.

The early potatoes ('Belle de Fontenay' and 'International Kidney') have gone in today; I'm still renovating the bed where the maincrops are to go.  The leeks are coming up along with the oriental greens (and a whole lot of weed seedlings!), and I've sown dill and coriander alongside the broad beans as that seemed to work well last year.  I need to start hardening off the lettuce and brassica seedlings in the greenhouse.

The weather has continued to be a mix of sunshine, dull periods and showers, though fewer of the latter than forecast.  A little cooler than normal but the sun is pleasant; warnings of overnight frosts haven't come to anything thus far.

On the wildlife front, the first baby birds (a blackbird and a thrush) have briefly broken cover.  The thrushes seem to be keeping mostly to the bottom of the garden; an adult has come once or twice to the patio for water, but they mostly seem to be down in the compost corner (which is where I startled the youngster the other day).  Still lots of (adult) sparrows, and several very frisky dunnocks; the robins are still feeding their brood.  The lame pigeon has been having some big fights with other male pigeons who feed underneath the seed feeder; he tolerates others, who I assume are the females, although he hasn't noticeably had any success in wooing them.

There is also some unidentified wildlife in the greenhouse; something has been eating my aster seedlings.  Grrr.

April showers

The dry weather has given way to sunshine and showers; in the past few days we've had a little hail and some thunder and lightning as well.  Cool, but no night frosts at least; the cold frame has been propped open during the day, and when one of the bubblewrap panels in the greenhouse fell off I didn't bother to put it back.  I suppose I ought to remove the rest of it, as (I hope) we shouldn't get any prolonged cold now.

One of the partridges - we still have a pair of them around daily, and occasionally a singleton as well - was inspecting the cold frame with great interest yesterday; I think it was considering whether it dared to go inside (but fortunately it didn't).  Luckily the greenhouse door was closed at the time as it seemed tempted to wander in there instead.

The greenhouse is filling up well, with seeds (tomatoes, aubergines, sweet william, larkspur, asters, scabious) pricked out and potted on, and the first round of freesia bulbs potted up.  The dahlias are throwing up shoots, and the courgettes and sunflowers are sprouting; there's a whole lot of brassicas and lettuces also in need of potting on.  The upside of the showery weather is that the greenhouse is a good place to be!  I have a nice crop of ipomoea, which have germinated well (and, dare I say it quietly so that they can't hear, there's no sign of damping off yet ...).  Unfortunately I had planned to pair it with the portulaca, which is resolutely refusing to germinate, even in the propagator.

The sweet peas - all of them, including the Tutankhamuns - have been planted against the front wall in the hope that they'll clothe their beanpoles (buddleia prunings actually) well enough to distract the eye from the electricity substation across the road.  It means that they're growing in deep shade, but I'm hoping that they will be all the more inclined to climb towards the light.  The Old-fashioned Mixed ones, which I've grown for years, have done poorly again; this is about the third year that they've been disappointing.  I think I'll give up on them and maybe go for 'Cupani' instead next time.

Also in the front garden, the older camellia ('Donation') has flowered really well - about a dozen good blooms.  The other isn't going to flower, by the looks of it, though it seems happy enough.

The large red tulips will soon be out; the small ones have been doing well, and as usual make a good picture with the yellow doronicums and the honesty.  The erythroniums are also out, as is the anthemis in the patio pot (but not yet the one at the bottom of the garden), and the centaurea is showing its first flower.  The plum blossom is going over, but the pears are in flower and the apple cordons aren't far behind.

Down in the new(ish) bed at the bottom of the garden, plants are filling out nicely, although there are still big gaps.  There are some poppy seedlings coming up, and I'm hoping that some of them are the progeny of the nice purplish-red ones from last year.  There are also a lot of ferny seedlings that are almost certainly some sort of umbellifer - some of them are from the sweet cicely (which is good), but are the rest ammi or cow parsley?  I suspect the latter, but I'll let them fill out a bit before I decide whether to pull them up or not!

A buzzard was hunting over the field opposite us the other day; and we've seen a glimpse of a big raptor that might have been the red kite (but it was too quickly gone for us to be sure).  At the other end of the scale, this week's butterfly sighting was an orange-tip.

Nesting time

For some of our birds, nesting is well underway, with babies already being fed (blackbirds and robins are collecting food), but some others are still building.  The sparrows are digging up moss for their various homes in our roof (there are usually four) and possibly in the leylandii hedge, which I suspect is one big bird apartment block, as well.  The tits, who always nest a little later, are also building; some have been inspecting the nest box, but one has found a way into the front porch roof and is taking grass and moss in there.  There are usually more birds than humans in this house!

Doing some clearing up and (belated) rose-pruning in the village hall garden the other day, I looked down at a huge clump of pendulous sedge at my feet and realised that there was something in the middle of it.  The something was looking at me while trying to remain as inconspicuous as possible.  It was a hen pheasant, presumably sitting on eggs.  She was superbly camouflaged, and sat tight all the time I was working there; I hope she manages to raise her brood undisturbed.

Today my attention was caught by some vetch (the really nasty weeds are now starting to sprout strongly) moving vigorously in the border under the dining room window, as if something was pulling at it.  It wasn't a bird, as nothing flew out; I think I caught a glimpse of a furry grey-brown back that looked like a vole.  I hope it hasn't nested in the little rock bank I created there, as that border is going to be dug out later this year and I wouldn't want to disturb a nest.

I've seen two ladybirds so far this year - double what I saw in the whole of 2013 - and a cabbage white and a tortoiseshell butterfly.

The seeds are doing well so far.  In fact some of the sweet peas, still in the cold frame, are starting to flower, so I need to get them out soon (first I need to decide where to plant them ....).  The propagator is proving its worth; for the record, the following seeds have germinated in there: tomatoes, aubergines, ricinus, didiscus, cleome (well, one seed has sprouted anyway!) and mesembryanthemum.  Only the portulaca is refusing to do anything at all; I've grown it before, a long time ago, and don't recall it being difficult to germinate.

Out in the garden, the later tulips are showing buds; the erythroniums are out, the daffodils are mostly fading except for the very latest ones, and the hellebores are starting to go over.  I'm pleased with the amelanchier; it has been allowed to get very lanky, but last year I managed to cut back some of the top growth and this year it has produced a much better display of blossom.

The weather has been dry and mostly very sunny - warmish in the sunshine but cooler than you'd expect otherwise, and decidedly chilly at night and in the shade.  The forecast is for temperatures to stay slightly below normal, so I'm not hurrying to plant things out (except those sweet peas ....).

Heard but not seen

Today wasn't a day for spending much time out in the garden; the recent unsettled weather turned into a cool, wet and windy day.  But during a brief foray for some flowers to put in a vase (I'm trying to provide as many cut flowers for the house as I can), I picked up the first sounds this year of a baby blackbird, loudly demanding food.  There are at least two pairs of blackbirds about, one feeding nestlings and one probably still nest-building, and the two males were getting very territorial today - if one of them had youngsters out and about, he would be wanting to keep the rival well away.

The robins are also nest-building, as are the sparrows.  There's a lot of bathing going on, in the bird baths and in the pond (now cleared out a bit); a woodpigeon has had a couple of baths at the edge of the pond.  Nest-building is dirty work.  A blue-tit took a look at the nestbox the other day, so we might get activity there in due course.

Out and about, D saw a huge (100-plus) flock of fieldfares in a field on the edge of the village.  They must be preparing to fly north.

Despite the coolish and, lately, rather damp weather, other wildlife is also doing its spring thing, especially when the sun comes out.  A few more butterflies have been about: a brimstone last week, and a pair of peacocks were mating by the pond.  In the pond, which has been cleared of excess weed for the first time this year, there are little wriggly things that might be baby newts, and I also found a dragonfly larva; I didn't see any of those last year, so that's good news for me, if not for the newts (which are dragonfly larva food).   All the pondlife that I spotted was put back in the water, and the weed was left for a couple of days before going in the compost bin.  I well remember the time I didn't do this and the next day found a frog sitting in the compost bin looking very displeased.

Tulips and brunnera

Current vases of flowers indoors are scented daffodils, and early tulips with brunnera.  The osmanthus and Euphorbia characias are in bloom, the erythroniums and the older of my two potted camellias are in bud, and the plum tree is just starting to flower.  Less obviously, the gooseberries are also in bloom; although the flowers may not be very obvious to us, the bees have spotted them and are buzzing vigorously around them.  They're also enjoying the comfrey, the pulmonaria and the hellebores, all of which are still blooming away, and of course the daffs. 

We won an orchid in a raffle!

April seed-sowing has started: leeks with some mizuna and red mustard outside (well protected from the attentions of the two partridges), and brassicas, lettuces, squashes and sunflowers in the greenhouse.  The March seeds are mostly sprouting in there, and some of the autumn-sown seeds (bicoloured aquilegias for example) pricked out.  It's all getting a bit crowded as there isn't much bench space!

The forecast is for the weather to be drier for the next few days; I really need to get on with clearing the overgrown veg plot to make room for all these plants!  What am I going to do with 30 bicolored aquilegias anyway?