End of Month Review - March 2014

March has given us a bit of most sorts of weather, some hard frosts, some warm days, quite a lot of rain but also some dry periods and the odd hail storm.  Yes Spring has arrived.
Which means that the Magnolia is about to burst into flower,
The camellia and the Acer 'Orange Dream' in the front garden are looking ok, a bit ivy-overwhelmed, but ok.
The Knot Garden is looking like it needs a trim really quite soon, but not yet, not Derby Day yet.
and this may look like just a bunch of leaves to you, but to me it is a peony grown from seed and this year it has a bud.  I am more than a little excited about this.
The quince hedge is growing nicely, enjoying this sun and the recent further rains.
The back garden is starting to show real signs of life and color now.  I love this time of year when it starts to really put a spurt on.
The olive tree in the courtyard has had a bit of a prune to open it up in the center a bit, the camellia is flowering and the rhododendron luteum is heavy with bud.
Despite the shadow of the house, color is returning to the Conservatory Border, the red of young rheum leaves is particularly noticeable.
Some red tulips are flowering in the Pond Border and there is a big fat bud on the tree peony.
In the lawn random blue anemones are popping up all over the place.  This makes me smile.
The Crown Fritilleria are now flowering on the borderline between the Conservatory Border and the the Spring Border, they are clumping up well now.
The concrete planter is celebrating Spring by looking really rather good in my opinion.  The primroses and pansies have all over wintered ok, as has the nicotiana that can just be seen in the bottom corner.
I like this view across the pond, it shows the day lilies that are coming up.
The Spring Border is looking very good, which is good as it is now Spring.
The Tree Lupin Border is looking a little scrappy, the willow and tree lupin are doing well and the woad is on its way up, but at the moment it is patchy.  This border is always under-planted at this time of year as I fill it out with dahlias and tithonia to give it hot color in the Summer.
In the Wild Garden the Katsura tree is leafing up well.
The Medlar (foreground) and Quince (background) are leafing up too and showing signs of blossom buds.  This is good.
The Tulip Tree is doing that beautiful leaf-unfurling thing that it does.  This tree is worth growing for this moment alone, it has such grace.
The Corkscrew Hazel is surrounded by anemone blanda and looking very happy.  After so many years of being in a pot it is now maturing well and loving being planted in the ground.
The Bog Garden is a little sparse, but the primula and snakeshead fritilleria steal the show this time of year.
The Wild Garden in general makes me happy.  It has had a lot of planting over the last twelve months and I expect great things from it this year.
Meanwhile on the edge of the Wild Garden the Edgeworthia hangs on to life.  It reacted badly to the sharp frost the other day, but it is ok and still not dead.  This is good.  Every year it does not die makes a little stronger for the next year, this is my hope anyway.
The Long Shoot looks a bit scrappy too, but stuff is on the move and growth is appearing.
The veg beds are mainly dominated by spring greens and purple sprouting broccoli.  The green manure has been dug in and the spuds will be planted out soon.
The garlic is growing well and inter-woven with yellow wallflowers.  They need planting out really into the main borders.
The sweet peas are now living on the table outside of the greenhouse, itching to be planted out, soon I tell them, soon.  I must also sow the next batch to get them going.
I end on the pond as is traditional.  It is very full, of water, parrot weed and frogspawn.
Thanks as ever to Helen for hosting this meme.