I do like working part time! It gives me a few days during the week in which I can get out into the garden. To me this is especially important when the good weather happens during the working week and it’s rotten over the weekends…why is that?
I missed out on Patient Gardener’s monthly meme “End of Month View” at the end of March. This is my ‘Into The Second Week of the Next Month Review”.
This year the Ribes has been particularly splendid and, with the forsythia, this corner of a somewhat shady part of the garden is looking very colourful.
I decided not to grow any vegetables this year in the raised bed, replacing them with cutting flowers instead. Because it then proved to be an invitation to the local cats to use it as a public toilet, I have had to cover it with wire mesh. Initially a wily puddy tat wriggled its way under the wire and had a good dig around, so the edges are hooked down now and this seems to have done the trick.
There are some tiny flower buds on the Aquilegia and in a week or two they will be in full bloom. Most have reverted to a dusty dull pink color so I bought another two at the weekend, a William Guinness and a Blue Star and today they were introduced to their new home.
The bottom border is starting to look lush, the Agapanthus and the Allium are filling out well and I hope will produce lots of blooms this year. The eagle eyed of you will see that I have some Spanish Bluebells. Purists will throw their hands up in horror at this. When I moved in 14 years ago the garden was bursting with them as well as being over run with ivy. I pulled the majority up but they do add a lovely blue tinge at this time of the year and as long as I keep them in check I am ok with them.
Well aware that Peonies take a while to settle and decide to blossom, I am keeping my fingers crossed that it produces a lot of flowers this year. It is now five years old, I had one flower in 2012 and two in 2013 so it is about time it flourished!
Last year, I bought a Rudbeckia and Echinacea from Crocus and am delighted to see that they have made their way through the wet winter. In order to protect them from cats and foxes, both seem to delight in digging up the garden, I covered them with bamboo cloches during the last few months and today have put little wire guards around them, with plenty of sticks to make it less attractive. If we really do come back as animals in our next lives, cats were certainly never gardeners, they have no respect at all!
The north facing border, which has been waterlogged for the past few months and gets no sunshine, is always a bit of a struggle. However, the hydrangea is in its element as are the Astilbe. Somewhere amongst them is hidden a very large hosta. This always takes a little time to make a showing and I am wondering if the Astilbe has choked it out this year, but then again maybe not, we shall see.
Also in this damp border, happily growing in moist clay, is the Euphorbia Fireglow. I know if it was in drier conditions it would be spreading prolifically but this is its third year so must be quite content. The orange spiky plastic strips at the back of the bed have fallen off the top of the wall. I had them “glued” up there a few years ago to stop cats/foxes jumping down onto the plants. Well it was worth a try.
Just as a finishing flourish, check out the raspberries – they are going to be wonderful this year.
I have had a problem writing this post which has tested my patience. I used my iPad to take the photos as the battery has gone on my camera. Then I tried to write it using the WordPress iPad App with great difficulty, so saved it as a draft and moved over to my lap top. The formatting was shot, the photos were not in the right place and it kept shooting back to the beginning – never again! Back to the good old camera and pc for future posts, and now I am off for a much needed cup of tea to soothe my nerves.
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