I was going to start this post with commenting on the weird weather this past month but I feel like I have been doing that for the last year! Anyway, it has been unseasonably warm the last couple of weeks and we have had hardly any rain which is very unusual. Need less to say this has had an impact on the garden and many flowers are flowering early although the trees don’t seem that early. It has been strange at work to see our students sunbathing under trees where the leaves haven’t opened!
The tulips are certainly coming into their own and filling the border as I hoped they would. I am hoping that as they die down the perennials they are planted amongst will cover the tulips dying foliage. The bamboo cloches are there to protect my Delphinium, well to protect my cat from the slug pellets I have put round them. The Delphinium are coming through strongly so hopefully this early action have given them a head start on the slugs.
I am still wondering about adding forget me nots for next spring but I wonder if that would be too much and to be honest whilst it probably doesn’t look like it right now there isn’t that much space for them. I have some Nepeta and more Geraniums to plant out along the wall edge to add to the froth in the summer.
I was going to concentrate on just the Cottage Garden Border and the Spring/Patio Border this year in the End of Month posts but I thought I would show you the woodland border that I featured last year which never seemed to change or fill out. The border was new a year ago this month and I am really pleased that the first planting of daffodils are really looking good – these are Thalia and the small ones in the front, which aren’t quite out yet, are Hawera. I think next spring I will add to these with more at the back of the border. I also still need to sort out the back of the border.
Now we have the Spring/patio border and yet again I am apologising for the apparently large bare patch in the middle. There are ferns and Cimicifuga coming through here – honest. But it does look awful so I have decided to add some more small narcissus next spring. I thought about extending the snowdrops down the border but I think I really want some interest now and the snowdrops are long over. The yellow of the narcissus will work well with the hyacinth and Erythronium which are flowering now.
The longer view of the border and I am glad to report that the jasmine I butchered in the autumn is beginning to re-shoot so the wall will soon be covered again. Hopefully the geraniums and Nepeta I am going to plant along the top of the wall will add another dimension to the border. There are Japanese anemones, acanthus and astrantia beginning to shoot and reappear so next month there is might be more to see.
If you would like to join in with the End of Month View meme please do – the more the merrier. Just leave a link to your post in the comment box.
