Is it Spring yet?

The calendar has flipped over to March, and signs of Spring approaching are all around, but next week is threatening to be cold and possibly snowy!

Even so the garden is starting to come back to life. 

There are early daffodils appearing here and there (seemingly not quite where they should be), though a bit battered by recent wind.

Lenten roses adding a touch of purple 

and bergenias, a touch of pink

This is the time when the front garden looks its best. The early clumps of snowdrops now have crocus and primroses growing alongside them.

I'm just hoping that everything survives next week's weather,
 

Snowdrops

I've let this blog slide for a long while - years, in fact - but what better time to revive it than when snowdrops are flowering and Spring seems round the corner.

I've been out and about - to Kedleston and Hopton Hall  - to see snowdrop displays, but the photos here were taken in my garden.

Starting many years ago from a small clump they've spread, by seed, by me dividing and re-planting just after flowering, by birds lifting the shoots in early spring, till they almost circle the back lawn (and a couple of escapees have rooted among the rhubarb).

As the first real sign of Spring (or at least the end of winter) snowdrops are always a welcome sight, and this year they seem to have done exceptionally well. The weather has been kind. They don't mind cold nights, and so far February has been free of snow or heavy rain which can flatten them.

Apple blossom time

 This year's apple blossom has been stunning, with the first flowers appearing in early April, and the last still waiting to open (perhaps those knew about the cold nights forecast for next week)

 This is the first time that all five trees have flowered, though some are covered in blossom while a couple only have one cluster. I'm hoping this will all lead to a bumper harvest, but I'll have to wait and see

Picking this week - 22nd April 2020

We're not really into the swing of spring crops but things are coming along nicely.

In the greenhouse I've trays of  rocket and mizuna  growing well and supplying me with fresh salad leaves

From the allotment there are radishes and the end of winters leeks.










And both garden and allotment have rhubarb ready to pull.

Pansies

I thought it was time I updated this blog as I've been busy in the garden of late; digging keeps me active, and sowing seeds and planning for future harvests helps me keep anxiety at bay in these strange times.

 I was going to share pics of my seedlings and apple blossom but checking out the last post I realise I mentioned some 'clearance' pansies - and they're now all doing well. So I'll start with portraits of them :)

Post-christmas

It's a dull time of year, especially in the garden. Here and there though winter jasmine brightens up walls and fences, and I now have a couple of pots of christmas roses flowering - hopefully this time they'll stay live through summer.


















On a diy store trip to buy bird-feed I got slightly side-tracked and rescued some pansies from the reduced-to-clear rack. They're now potted up in wall baskets and tubs, and will hopefully bring more colour into the garden in the coming weeks

Pumpkin time

The allotment pumpkins aren't huge this year, but hopefully they'll prove to be enough for us.

I started using the smaller pumpkin this week, and so far we've had two meals - soup and chilli - from it, and I've not used half.

Once they're chopped of course, they have to be eaten quite soon, so I shan't be carving them for Halloween, as if I do the flesh never gets eaten quickly enough.

I might just draw scary patterns on them.

Autumn Flowers

 I've neglected this blog again over summer, and autumn feels like an odd time to pick up a gardening blog. There are still flowers to be seen though - an advantage a perennial garden can have over a 'summer bedding' style planting.

This white Michaelmas daisy, the orange violas and a couple of still-flowering dianthus are all 'rescues' from the garden centre clearance racks. I'm fond of a bargain (who isn't?) and with perennials a little care will see them flourish for years.






































Michaelmas daisies are the mainstay of my autumn flowers with these long established plants now forming good-sized clumps.
I just wish I last year's rudbeckias had survived to add a splash of bright yellow to the garden.

Blossom time

One wonderful thing about spring is blossom bursting out all around (even though I occasionally suffer with hay fever from it)

Easter weekend brought the first apple tree into full blossom, and three more are racing to catch up.

Two are 'proper' purchased trees, though I've forgotten what sort (!), the other two grew from pips, so their fruit is, at first, a surprise.

And to turn the garden completely pink, the ornamental cherry has flowered.

A plague of maples

A large tree grows just the other side of my back garden fence.
For years I've believed it to be a sycamore, because of its 'helicopter' seeds, but having looked more closely at its flowers I think it may be a Norway maple.

In summer and early autumn it shades our side a little too well, hiding the sun from most of the lawned area.

But the greatest problem with it is propagation. Each autumn those 'helicopter' seeds come whizzing over the fence, and each spring those seeds take root.

These little seedlings are an absolute nightmare this year.

I'm sure they'd take over completely if left to their own devices!

I started off with a plan of pulling up half a dozen of them each time I went in the garden. 

It wasn't enough!

I moved on to a dozen, then two, but more seem to keep springing up wherever I look.

Clearing open areas like the vegetable patches isn't so difficult - turn the top few inches of soil, and the roots will shrivel - but they always find a place under a prickly rose bush, or hidden by daffodil stalks, and, before I realise, they're too big to be easily pulled out.

This one escaped last year's cull, though, and is shaping up as an attractive bonsai!

Camellia

Only one flower on my camellias this year but it looks beautiful - even in the rain

New beginnings

I've sadly neglected this blog over the last year, but if there's a time to pick it up again it's now when the garden is coming back to life after the winter. Yes, I'm too late for snowdrops, the first sign of spring; the year has moved on too quickly, and this year hasn't brought the late snow of 2018.

Here's a pictorial round up of what's in flower at the moment



weird and wonderful snake's head fritillaries












early blossom - forsythia, flowering currants, the dwarf peach tree (which rather oddly has flowers in two shades of pink this year), and the over-the-fence bird cherry

and polyanthus in various colours from purple and deep red to these pale pinks

Snow and after

Like most of the country, last week we had snow. Lots of it, piling up on the windows, and blurring the lawn, flower beds and paths.











It was a bit unexpected as I thought we'd seen the end of winter and were moving into Spring, but it's not unknown at this time of year.

What worried me most was the state of the flowers hidden beneath the snow - while irises held their own against the weather, snowdrops and daffodils 'flopped' over with the cold (minus 6 for a couple of nights), and were then covered by a snow blanket which crushed them to the ground.

At weekend the snow started to melt - and these daffodils weren't looking well. I didn't think there was much hope of them reviving so I pulled a few for vases in the house, and they seemed  to pick up.

 And as the snow retreated, so did most of those outside. Their buds even seem to be opening, so in a few days there should be a 'normal' display of daffodils.

The snowdrops too bounced back, and, strangest of all, crocuses had been growing under the snow, and as it melted they emerged in flower!








I hope we're now finished with dramatic weather and can move gently into spring!