ALMOST MAY

 So, here I am sitting inside the garden room with the doors wide open and a gust of wind fills the place with cherry confetti, petals everywhere.

Today is Saturday an it is warm - 20C and the garden is watered.

I have moved most of the seedlings from the top shed top the Wendy House by the pond and watered them too.

The air is full of goldfinches. 

Some trees are in leaf like this cercidphyllum on the left, unlike the old ash clad in ivy and an old  Rambling Rector rose on the right. This will be the last photo of daffodils as they are going over, R has decided to be economical with deadheading, hoping they will seed.

Except for this photo.

We have blossom, Victoria Plum and greengage, magnolia stellata, blackthorn, weeping silver pear and wild cherry.

 

One plant that delights us is the pink rhododendron from Matlock Bath whose scent pervades everywhere and the three yellow azaleas.

The later flowering camellias are also lovely, I just wish they were scented then they would be amazing.  

Elsewhere there are tulips, green alkanet from Plockton, kingcups by the stream, humble daisies in the lawn, ferns beginning to uncoil their croziers.

Not all flowers are yellow white - the quince, odd tulip and flowering currant are in full glory.

An evening walk by the pond, no sign of tadpoles but a large newt plugging through the weed. No sign of the house martins nor swallows yet and the garden is so dry. At least it allows me to postpone the mowing.

I sometimes muse on what old friends would think of the garden, those we have lost, and Stephen S springs to mind - I think he would have loved it.

Still April though and what does April usually bring? (Though little this year).

GLORIOUS SPRING

Every year or so we get given hyacinths at Christmas and then what to do with them so here and there in the garden are where they were put. I never remember where so it is always a surprise when they flower.

Autumn leaves have colour, we know, but so can spring growth, new and fresh, acer on the left, spirea right. 

Then I examine the main flower bed - and - there is a new rabbit burrow!

It is only when one looks at the size of the trees and shrubs we have planted that I realise how long we have been here - over 14 years. The eucalyptus just grows and grows and the white birches, planted in two tranches are looking so mature.

There are wild flowers in our garden many purists would not allow - particularly the wood anemones and lesser celandine. The leaves of the latter are quite quickly gone.

With leaves beginning to emerge on the trees especially such as the hawthorn (flowers first on the blackthorn) the big sycamore still looks skeletal from down the road.

Even in hidden corners there are gems, quince and bronze fennel leaves.

The damson blossom is coming out and we are praying for no frost.

Seedlings keep arriving - petunias for pots, dahlia seedlings and other plants I had forgotten I had ordered.

Went to meet friends at Holker Hall and walk the gardens on our RHS free entry. The gardeners there have changed a lot, filled the ha-ha by the field and chopped down the huge eucryphias by the cascade. It had got a bit neglected with staff cuts due to Covid.

Here is a Nook panorama shot from the seat at the far wall looking back to the house -

Makes it look much bigger than the 1.8 acres we have.

Blossom is everywhere, amelanchier by the pond, the damsons, and the great white cherry is better than it has ever been.

Time to get out the sun brolly and stick it in the table by the benches?

CHERRIES, CHERRIES

The cherries are finally out despite cold dry weather. 

The garden is in need of watering. I have already begun watering pots as we have had no real rain for some time and none is forecast.

Up by the wood the daffs are staring to age but the primroses are splendid. 

The mahonia has finally settled down and R has been lifting and dividing the snowdrops, again and again.

The gardener S has 

put in a drain where I bogged down the mower and the mowers have been serviced - I am now broke. He has also moved a big clump of yellow flag iris to the top of the garden by the far wall where the wild watercress grows.

Down by the pond I am using the writing shed (now redundant) for seedlings - Cosmos and white honesty amongst others. When cameras went digital printing trays became surplus but are great for gardeners.

Also the trail camera by the pond has collected images of the usual - rabbits, foxes etc and this one of two cock pheasants going at it 

hammer and tongs.

We also had a stoat walk blithely past our garden window, unconcerned that we were sitting on the other side, and our first Peacock butterfly

The frost and chill wind has not helped the camellia flowers and they are bitten and brown.

Other plants - the skimmia and the euphorbia are doing well.

Then there is one clump of primroses up by the field boundary that thrive every year, obviously feeding on love, for that is where Tom's ashes were scattered. Tom was the previous owner of our small plot.

The forcing pot has produced wonderful rhubarb.

And back to the cherries - Shirotae right, Great White left, wonderful.