OVERGROWTH

 Where does it all come from? We go away for a week to Scotland and when we come back it looks like the garden has exploded.

Camassias out, apple blossom, forget-me-nots going over, calendulas coming on . . . .

The aquilegias are everywhere despite thinning last year and the broccoli has gone to flower. Rather attractive though, perhaps we should grow it as a flowering plant?

Up in the wood the bluebells are done and the red campion and pignut are taking over. And we do have rhododendron ponticum from a previous owner but not on the scale of the hills on the way down to Lochbuie on Mull. Should they be removed?

We even have white campion as a wild variation. And we have rain and the lawn is too soggy to cut, now getting rather long. The asparagus has grown four feet tall in one week so cute it back and hope for a bit of a crop. ~I have just got some new crowns and these will need to go in with the hollyhocks I potted up. All in all we are rapidly becoming a woodland garden. No doubt R will soon be calling in the Tree surgeons to open things up.

Abundance is the word.

The glorious beauty bush, kolkowitzia, is flowering as is the elder.

And as I walk around the garden I see water lilies in flower, big orange oriental poppies and the blue comfrey.

One plant that loves the rain is the rhubarb and it is flourishing again.

There are one or two ash trees with dieback around but not our grand old tree. (Not yet).

So now after a holiday it is time for weeeeeeeeeeding.

BLUEBELLS (or not)

 

The bluebell battle is on. Our wild bluebells have become crossed with Spanish bluebells from elsewhere. It may be a losing fight but we will try.

Our first celery in a vase has been put out in the veg bed. Another is now in the vase and we await roots. I think if we can get enough going we can be self sufficient in celery by the end of summer.

No swallows nor martins, not surprising it is unusually cold. 

Down by the pond no spawn this year, no toads/newts/frogs.

We do have marsh marigolds and our first flower on the water lily.

We have had two days of warm sunshine but that is probably the lot, it is cool and raining again. However the euphorbia and the odd tulip do brighten up corners.

As does the one surviving calendula in amongst the forget-me-nots and an old wallflower.

The cherries in the garden are over though the wild and bird cherries are still flowering.

We have lots of chiffchaffs chiffing and so on but not a swallow. I have put in some cavolo nero and turnips and various perennials from Abi and Tom's.

The sweet peas look rather tired so we may have to do them again.

Its is now May 10th and temperatures in the twenties though not, I suspect, for very long.

So how is the wild area doing - well awe do have the odd ragged robin but swathes are now horsetails.

I do not usually give gardening tips but what to do with the leaves off the rhubarb? I know they can go on the compost heap but laid out they can suppress weeds effectively and be colourful.

WE HAVE HANKIES

 

Yes we have handkerchiefs on our Davidia. We were given it seventeen years ago by my brother and sister-in-law and it has finally flowered.

We watch the tv, visit gardens like Holker Hall and everywhere are thousands of tulips (at some expense) but it is beautiful. We have a few around, must get more for next year. So we potter - well I do, my main gardener R weeds away whilst I fail to light bonfires, put in some purple sprouting broccoli and cosmos, and write blogs. The other gardener A has mown and so on. He got out my mower for the first time after servicing and petrol poured from the filter - a stuck float or something. I await the mower man.

The white comfrey has spread and R has decided to experiment by cutting one plant back hard to see if it will regrow. Talking of regrowth the big osier that was damaged by the snow and was cut right back is sprouting like an unshaven chin.

To the woods, to the woods - that reminds me of an Abbott and Costello film - where the primrose banking and bluebells are in fine fettle. We do have some cowslips and violets too but the wild garlic will have to be watched as it is acting like an alien invasion force.

The red rhododendron is flowering though the yellow azalea is not yet out. The scented rhododendron is almost over, its petals fading and falling.

Here is the glorious sight of a dug and manured veg bed waiting for plants. The other bed alongside it has still got broccoli and for some reason Sweet Williams in it. Another bed waiting is suddenly showing potato leaves - I must have missed them last year when digging them up.

So where does it all come from? 

SPRING?

He asks as the hail hits the paving. Yes we did see our first swallow today and the ospreys at Foulshaw have an egg but the wind is cold and it has been so wet.

We also saw a tree creeper on the cherry.

The eucalyptus has shed its lower bark into a neat heap.

And we have had a harlequin ladybird, spectabilis, here - it is an invader and sadly eats other ladybirds.

Seedlings are everywhere, carpeting the path to the pond, even a sycamore behind the wiper on R's car.

The young trees have interesting colours in the fresh leaves. Have to pull them up or they would take over. Also have to deflower the rhubarb (if that is the right expression?)

We did wonder if we were going to get no cowslips but they are coming late. The Stonefield Castle rhododendron flower has lost its pink and is now white.

As one walks the woodland there is a wonderful scent and it is our rhododendron we bought in Matlock Bath some years ago.

And the Rambling Rector by the old well is out of control - will need hard pruning after it has flowered.

There is other blossom besides the cherries - greengage, damson and pear for example -

Down by the pond, still spawnless, the iris leaves and ferns give good vertical shape and the kingcups are flowering.

Elsewhere Tom's flowering currant is great and there are forget-me-nots sown all over the place.

There are also wild flowers like the cuckoo pint, bluebell and dog violet by the wood.

Sarah Raven's tulips are coming into flower in a pot outside the kitchen and I have put in the first sweet peas after loads of well rotted horse manure - hungry plants. I have also potted up five hollyhocks that arrived today in the post. Not had a lot of success with these before but here goes. So lawn, well some of it, had its first scalping . Spring is coming and the sun was warm on my back today, just a pity about the chilly breeze.