My garden in April

In my previous update I shared how our garden was reawakening, bringing colour with daffodils and the start of the tulips, this month that continued and although the weather hasn’t been great the garden has been stoic - the tulips have done their thing and made me smile during the windier days, and the blossom has been fab. I’ve so many more photos, so that’s another sign that the weather is on the up!

I’m glad I captured the tulips on the patio being blown about - it made me smile, though I’m guessing the tulips weren’t quite so keen! I wasn’t sure if they would right themselves as even once the wind stopped they stayed bent, but after a while they did straighten up again, though some of them stayed a little wayward - as tulips do!

The trees have started to flourish this month, and some more than others but I’ll come onto that. The crab apple tree started with the deepest pink blossom, which faded to pale pink and then white as the flowers opened. By the end of the month most of the blossom has gone - either naturally or helped by the wind, so I’m hoping that we’ll have plenty of crab apples to harvest later in the year.

I had concerns about one of the field maples, we have three in the outside border. The central one wasn’t in leaf as much as the other two and so I sought some advice from the RHS, which I didn’t realised I could do until now. The advice confirmed my suspicions and some remedial work has been needed, so we did that one sunny Saturday morning with much trepidation. It’s early days, and of course the tree is now much smaller than the other two which is a shame, but a healthier tree is a much more preferable result. Hopefully I’ll be able to share more good news on this in future, but for now please keep your fingers crossed.

There’s better news elsewhere in the garden though. The small nectarine tree which I brought home from dad has thrived over the winter, and last month I shared its blossom. This month I finally braved my knot skills and made a frame for it from bamboo canes and twine. And I was quite impressed with how it turned out.

I checked to see how it was doing towards the end of the month, and look, there looks like there may be tiny fruits starting to grow. There’s a few on each branch (but this is the best photo I have), so who knows what I’ll be able to share later in the year.

The potted acer outside our back door is full of leaves now, and I think could probably do with a trim - but it seems happy where it is as I’m not sure I remember seeing so many leaves on it before. I’m not complaining though.

See what I mean about how joyous the crab apple blossom is?

With a brown bin collection due I decided to make the most of that and a sunny morning, and took my secateurs to the buddleia bush. At one point I thought this whole bush would be for the chop, but after seeing how many butterflies and bees it brought to the garden I had a change of heart, so I pruned it instead. And then it all grew back, and so I’ve cut it a little bit harder this time. I’m under no illusion though that I won’t be cutting this again, and again though!

I bought some seedling lettuces at the garden centre this month, and then realised I no longer have a greenhouse. I also realised this again after I sowed some sunflowers, but more on that another time. Of course I know I don’t have a greenhouse, but it’s only when you have small plants (or seeds) that you realise how useful a greenhouse would be. Instead though the lettuces have been sheltering low down in one of the pots we brought with us from London, in one of the more sheltered spots I’d found. I potted them on and then nestled them into place, and they’ve done really well so I’m hopeful we’ll be eating red lettuce this summer.

I love raindrops on plants, especially on lupins - and this month as well as the wind, the lupins we bought at the Newark Garden Show, got to experience that first hand too.

In other good news the silver birch whip which we picked up from our council back in January is alive. I wasn’t sure what it would do, especially as I put it into a pot rather than straight into the ground, but when I checked it I was really pleased to see leaves at the base and midway up the stick of a tree. There’s buds all the way to the top of the plant, so with a few more nicer days I’m sure there’ll be more leaves to come.

The small apple tree which we brought from London is also back in leaf. I’ve been wondering where we can plant this and coming up blank as the gaps we have are a bit too close to the house, or as the tree grows would block views we currently enjoy. Talking through the start of our garden plans with MOH we realised that the back wall might also be an option for this tree, though it is much more mature than the nectarine tree above I’m going to look at it more closely to see if that too can also be trained to grow along a frame. I suspect that it would benefit from refreshed soil and some weeding in any case - as over the past few years it’s been left to fend for itself standing on the step outside our old shed.

While checking to see how the pots had overwintered I was pleased to see the redcurrant plant which hadn’t really thrived in our previous garden was in leaf, but more surprised to see that one of the peonies has already started to grow though its circular support.

I can’t wait to see how our garden develops in the next month, I’m sure I’ll have much more to share next time round.

My garden in March

In last month’s update from my garden there was the promise of colour, but it hadn’t yet materialised - well in March, it materialised with daffodils, blossom and the tulips making their mark. That wasn’t all though, and thankfully looking back you can see how much the garden has transformed in a month, with Spring taking its first tentative steps - thankfully!

These three terracotta pots have kept me busy over the month, with MOH quipping at one point that our daffodils probably had the most attention than any anywhere else, which is actually a fair comment. These egg yolk yellow daffodils were the first to flower, not surprisingly as they were the ones that got into earth in the autumn. The errant or curly wurly ones that I didn’t plant until the new year flowered much later, but they did flower and they brought their pale gentleness to the garden as they did.

You’ll have seen this photo before I’m sure, and I make no apologies for sharing it again as I really like it and it was the first time on ‘daffodil watch’ that I had flowers, the blue skies were an absolute plus too.

It was good to see the crab apple tree spring back into life too. I’d pruned it at the end of the summer last year, to reduce its size and give it a better shape and over the winter it acquired a bird feeder. Unfortunately the only birds that were interested were a couple of crows who were doing their utmost to get to the fatballs it holds. Not wanting to encourage the crows into my crab apples (there’s a lot of them here, with nests in the taller trees a few gardens away) I moved the bird feeder out of the tree and hung it on the wall, as we’ve nowhere else for it at the moment.

Watching the crows and their confusion on their next visit made me feel bad (briefly), but also they were quite comedic too - they haven’t found where I’ve hung it temporarily yet either, though we do still have a crow or two patrolling the grass every now and then.

In terms of blossom our small nectarine tree really put on a show. This plant came from dad and it’s our first year of seeing what it gets up to, and so far it’s going well! I repotted it in the autumn and as we want to eventually grow it in front of the wall on a more permanent basis, I’d pruned it so there was a central stem and two branches on each side with the intention of tying it to a cane support. I didn’t get around to that before winter, which given the wind and storms was probably a good thing, and its rewarded me with some early and very pretty blossom - I’m keen to see what it gets up to over the next few months now.

My tulips were also showing signs of promise early in the month, and are clearly happy in their new location - which while windy is also protected and of course they get the heat from the garage wall behind them. I love how they’re so very green when they’re at this stage.

Here’s the errant daffodils, some were quite tall in the end, but some of the others not so much!

They are much more delicate in their colouring though, and while they’re lovely I much prefer the egg yolk yellow sort!

Throughout the month the acer which we brought with us has come back to life too. It started with small buds, which gradually turned into these folded up leaves. It’s great to have the colour back by our back (front) door - and I think there’s more leaves than I remember in previous years.

Although I’d been keeping an eye on the tulips, they did take me by surprise and were suddenly in full flower. I think they too are enjoying the more open, and sunnier, garden and have come much earlier than they would usually in our previous garden. That gave me a headache though as my patio pots were still full of daffodils, but I didn’t want to miss out on these either.

I soon solved that conundrum by moving the tulips onto the patio and arranging, and rearranging, the daffodil pots in the large border so that we could see them from the house. I also learnt that our soil is saturated, I bought some snowdrops in the green and needed to plant them, but also needed to mix in some compost to the soil so that they stood a chance. Knowing this I was glad I put the daffodils in pots, but now I’m thinking I’ll keep them in pots and half dig them into the border - especially as know I’ve worked out the optimum spot for them all.

So a burst of colour this month - and aren’t the bold tulips against the lime green of the euphorbia just divine? I’m thinking I should pot up some of that euphorbia so I can bring that into the patio pots as a foil for the tulips next year - I know they spread when planted in borders, so maybe this could be a way to keep them more contained!

Other than these pots, we’ve still not been gardening proper this month thanks mostly to the weather - let’s hope April brings better weather and more opportunities to spend time outside in our new garden.

My garden in February

The weather in February has been just as dire and uninspiring as in January’s update, and I’ve not been tempted into the garden for anything more than taking some photos and moving some daffodils onto the patio so we don’t miss them flowering. But the good thing about our new garden is that we see a lot more of it from the house as every room pretty much has a vista over the garden and we walk through it every time we go out, so that alone brings plenty of opportunity to see what’s going on.

And in summary, that’s quite a bit for this month - hellebores, daffodils and even a few weeds!

Let’s start with the daffodils, they’ve come on so much.

AT THE START OF THE MONTH

Once I’d spotted that the new daffodils were peeking through the soil and gaining height, they became a regular waypoint on the way to the car, and by the middle of the month after being looked at a great deal the flower buds started to develop. Though I was still in for a long wait for further developments, but I can wait (mostly).

FLOWERS DEVELOPING MID-MONTH

BY THE END OF THE MONTH THEY WERE ALMOST THERE, ALMOST!

By the end of the month I was sure that flowering was imminent, and I didn’t want to miss it by leaving them alongside the garage and nestled against the wall where they’d spent the winter months. So despite being full of cold I moved them, arranged them and rearranged them several times to get them in prime position.

I’ve taken to growing my bulbs in smaller flower pots so that I can move them around and add them to some terracotta pots when they’re in bloom (or about to be) - that approach worked well for the tulips in our last garden and it’s something I’ve done for the first time with the daffodils we bought from the garden centre here in the autumn. I’m hoping it gives me the flexibility to have some colour on the patio without necessarily tying up pots for bulbs when they’re dormant, or have gone over.

The errant daffodils (which were the ones I was late to plant) have also been checked on, and they’re still errant but are still growing - they’ll be the crazy gang members of the daffodil world this year I’m sure!

Other plants which we brought with us (and haven’t potted out yet) are also doing well - the early flowering elephants ears did just that, and their burst of pastel pink among the shrubs, where I’d hidden the pots for protection over winter, was very welcome.

The euphorbias and tulips enjoyed bursts of February sunshine, almost appearing to dance with glee in the warmth - and quite honestly, I know how they felt. It was also good to see the geraniums which originally came from my FIL’s garden come back, I’m less keen to see the grass they seem to have acquired, but at least its still in a pot so should be relatively easy to resolve at some point.

The rhubarb is a bit of a star, already I can see some delicate red stems which glistened in the sun. It’s coping well with being in the pot, and sharing that with some lords and ladies, and I expect it will do even better when its planted out when the soil warms up a little. Though of course that means no cropping for a while, but I think it’ll be worth the wait.

The mahonias continue to look majestic and they’ve added some great structure to the flower bed over winter, their yellow flowers are no more but berries with a blueish tinge are starting to appear - I think there’s more to come from this new-to-me plant yet.

The red robin bushes have also been much welcomed during the greyer days, and they’ve held up well with their gorgeous red tips - as well as this one, there’s one in the outside border which makes me smile every time I drive in.

And remember that buddleia that brought so many butterflies to the garden last summer, and the one I was tempted to cut down and move slightly? Well I gave it a hard prune instead, and already it’s back and growing well - I shouldn’t have been quite so worried about it should I?! I’ve also removed many seedlings from the gravel, so it seems I was never going to be without one, which is absolutely fine by me.

I thought the deep maroon hellebore that we brought with us was a goner when I looked at it early in the month, it had lost most of its leaves and gained a lot of weeds, but I was pleased to be proven wrong as it’s given us the most beautiful deep coloured flowers as it usually does.

But this year it’s been joined by a hellebore in the border which is aiming to steal the show with its creamy green flowers which really does pop against the bark mulch. I’m hoping that both of them are happy enough to drop seeds which in turn are happy enough to develop into more plants!

And weeds, they’re starting. We’re seeing a lot more in the gravel now the sun’s making an appearance and so I’ve a feeling that one of our first gardening jobs of the year will be to remove as many as we can. I’m under no illusion, this is something that won’t be a one-time job, it’ll be the thing that becomes my life’s work in this garden, but looking on the positive side on the right day it can be quite mindful!