At last its been dry long enough for the lawn to dry out and for the first time since the beginning of the winter months, I dug the mower out of the shed and mowed the lawn! I never seem to learn not to walk on the wet lawn in the winter and yet again I have a number of bald patches. Some of the patches I have dug over and enlarged the flower bed – you can never have too many beds can you! A spot of lawn seed purchasing is on the list.
Today I felt really inspired. It is amazing the difference cutting the grass can make, all of a sudden the garden started to look tidy and ready for spring.
The Ribes Sanguineum (Flowering Currant) is starting to have those pretty dark pink flowers, and soon it will be a wonderful pink display of drooping clusters.
I found a few Forsythia flowers coming out with lots of buds, so that is going to look splendid in a few weeks. Underneath some of the shrubs at the bottom of the garden there are a few primrose plants, and these have managed avoid being nibbled at the moment. Something likes to eat them but I have never found out what. This clump of daffodils have remained uneaten also. I think I read somewhere there is a little bug that likes to eat them but I can’t remember what I should do about it.
One of my favorite shrubs in the spring is Spiria Japonica ‘Goldflame’. Whilst, in my opinion, it is nothing to write home about in the summer, it deserves a mention at this time of the year. The leaves emerge into a bronze-red in the spring, almost the reverse of other plants that turn that color in the autumn.
Last year I left the Elder Sambucus Nigra and it grew to a great height and cast a lot of shade over the garden, when sun was badly needed. Therefore this year I thought I would be tough and cut it down by half its height. I am doing it slowly, and at the moment it is still looking slightly odd. There were a few branches that were overhanging next door, on which they hung some of those peanut plastic bags, and the birds were not interested as they have been untouched for months. So, with great difficulty I managed to lean over the wall, cut the branches and successfully hauled the branches back on to my side of the wall to dispose of. This old tree is not going to be killed off easily, although that is certainly not my intention, it is full of little knobbly purple sprouts as you can see. I know it won’t produce any flowers or berries this year, as they appear on growth from the previous year, but at least I will have a little more sun.
The pots on the side patio are coming into their own now, and the tete-a-tete daffodils that I feared were looking rather stunted are now a decent size. I am looking forward to a splendid display of tulips.
Finally, the Jasmine Jasminum Officinale, which has flowered throughout the winter is amazing and smells glorious. It usually flowers in June and July giving out a heady perfume in the evenings, so I am expecting it to continue to flower throughout the summer. This was a tiny house plant and about 10 years ago I planted it out into a sheltered corner of the house. The year before last it was getting really out of hand and I cut it right down the ground thinking I had killed – clearly not!!
