WINTER TOLL

 

We have lost so much this winter. One of our two cut leaved thornless hawthorns dead, one of our two native fuchsias dead, where is the big euphorbia wulfenii, the dahlias, the gunnera? We had mostly a mild winter but each time I go in the garden I ask myself where this or that plant has gone.

I wish I could say the same for the goose grass, creeping buttercup and ever spreading wood avens. But then I have a wonderful gardener who weeds so well when she is not doing the ironing. 😍

Suddenly we seem to be living in a small wood, leaves everywhere, snow on the hawthorn and in the roadsides with the hedge parsley.

Have just put in some sweet peas - no not grown by myself, bought from the greengrocer. Worked last year.

It is warm, not hot, and the forecast is for the dry weather to carry on for another two weeks - time for the hosepipe? Yes and a top up for the pond.

The tulips have died back and those in pots have been cleaned up and put in the shed - somewhere dry. 

We disagree over the pond as I think just the algal bloom should be removed - R everything almost. One good surprise is that the rodgersia I put in last year has come up - forgot about it.

This is bogbean on the left and being a wild plant likes to take over. On the right is the only candelabra primula this year  where have they all gone?

Then there is watercress growing in the lawn so it might be damp there still.

Mowing and the mower is playing up misfiring. Might have to take it to the mower men!

Have raised the canopy on the hanky tree (Davidia) so I do not catch my head on the branches when cutting the grass. More than sixteen years old and the tree is yet to have hankies.

Shrubs thrive, elder and here rosemary and lilac.

The guelder rose and Viburnum mariesii and suffocating the tree peony on the lower banking - will need some thought.

Yellow azaleas flourish and the red rhododendron is stunning. The big rhododendrons from Stonefield Castle in Argyll - lots of leaf but no flowers yet.

Of all the spring blossom the one I like the best is the Bramley Apple.

Elsewhere the fiery euphorbia by the shed, the ornamental strawberry Sylvia gave us and the oriental poppies are doing well.

One plant I have become very fond of is the camassia, white on the right grown in the flower beds and blue on the left on the upper banking. Each year I gather the seed and scatter it though I am unconvinced that, except for the white in the flower bed, it is successfully spreading.

Sometimes all does not go to plan - last year I dug out the Sweet Cicely and it was a thug to remove - so - this year it has come up with a vengeance.

The meadowy bits are doing ok with red campion, yellow rattle etc and the cuckoo flower or lady's smock. My daughter has requested some wild garlic so I must warn her how it can become a weed popping up all over the place.

And finally this is the time of Columbine - the aquilegias that self sow every year and flourish -

And finally finally the roe deer has been back -