I have decided to include the view from my living room window as the opening of the End of Month View post. As you can see Spring as arrived with daffodils, hellebores and young growth of the willow tree.
The staging is looking a little quieter this month. The irises and crocus have gone over and are being replaced by narcissus and tulips. As the bulbs go over they are beginning to be moved off the staging to rest somewhere else and will probably be replaced with succulents. I have followed the advice given last month and purchased a Trachelospermum jasminoides to cover the trellis.
Small but physically challenging progress has been made on the front border with the old glazed sink being put into place. I now need to patch up the render on it. It was originally done by my Dad for my Mum and has started to fall off so hopefully over the next few weeks I shall be playing with concrete etc. Once this is done the sink will be used for succulents such as sempervivums. I am planning to also have them around the base of the sink and supplement these with some hardy exotics such as hardy varieties of agave or aloe.
The former Bog Garden now the Camellia border is beginning to show signs of life. I have planted some Iris siberica in here from elsewhere in the garden and they are looking lovely and fresh. There are signs that the astilbe and ferns will also be putting in an appearance soon. Hopefully this time next month there will be less earth showing.
The Spring/Patio border has lost its white drift of snowdrops and the bluebells are only just beginning to produce flower spikes. I have thinned the snowdrops, although probably not as much as I should have, and spread them down to the other end of the border. I have also added an Edgeworthia to the greenhouse end which is little more than a stick at the moment but I am hopeful that the foliage will add to the lush summer effect I am aiming for.
Finally the Cottage Border which is along the top of the wall you can see in the top photograph. I think this is my favorite part of the garden especially at this time of year. The narcissus are starting to flower, they are mainly Narcissus Cheerfulness which has a lovely scent. I have tried to limit the range of plants in this border, an approach I am trying to adopt more and more to create a sort of matrix effect albeit on a small-scale. As well as roses there are delphiniums, aquilegia and geraniums in this border so the theme is early summer. I took Yvonne’s advice last month and rethought the bay standard as she was right it will probably sucker. Instead I have added a small obelisk which needed a home and the clematis which was growing along the trellis behind the staging but is deciduous and not fulfilling the role that is needed. The step over apples along the top of the wall are beginning to leaf up and I am looking forward to blossom in the next month or so.
That is the garden at the end of March which has been a kinder and drier month than its predecessors. Now that the clocks have gone forward an hour I am hoping to get the odd hour of gardening in after work in the evenings and hopefully in April it will be even more evident that the season is progressing.
Anyone is welcome to join in with the End of Month View and to use it in their own way. It would be great though if you could link to this post in yours and also leave a link to your post in the comment box below so we can find you.
