Gardening through a pandemic – Part 5 Spring 2021

March, April, May 2021

Who’d have thought this time last year, that twelve months on we’d be in a third National lockdown! Admittedly the second was only a mini break, but still!

They always say “it’s a good job you don’t know what’s coming” and it’s true!

The amazing news however, is how many people in the UK that have already been vaccinated. Something to be truly proud of.

So here we are in spring again! Luckily nature and the seasons know nothing of a human pandemic and carry-on regardless.

I do think most gardeners would pick spring as their favourite month, I certainly do. All the trees and plants are coming back to life, with their bright new leaves. More flowers are out every week and the garden is full of life.

In the veg garden there’s direct sowing to be done regularly. It’s the season for rhubarb and better still asparagus. The greenhouse becomes very busy with seed sowing, and potting on of young seedlings.

That’s the brilliant thing about gardening for your mental health, it keeps you busy and there’s always something to look forward to

All in all there’s now plenty to distract me again from the doom and gloom of the continuing worldwide pandemic.

4th March – Time to sow Beetroot

Time to sow the first beetroot. I’m devoting a whole raised bed to it as we both love beetroot. I grow three different varieties ‘Red Ace’ a traditional red one. ‘Chioggia’ a pink and white stripy one, this is the sweetest of the lot, and ‘Golden Globes’ which is not surprisingly golden!

I’ve divided the bed into three, and sow one row of each, the intension is to sow another row as the first seedlings come up.

5th March – I want to see my Snowdrops

My snowdrops are planted at the far end of the garden. This means that when they come out in the depths of winter, I only see them when I venture down to the compost bins. I came up with the idea of splitting some of them and planting them into two shallow pots, with black grass Ophiopogon planiscapus Nigrescens on top.

Once the grass has spread, I envisage the white snowdrops coming through and contrasting. I hope it turns out as well as it is in my head. Time will tell.

Snowdrops and Ophiopogon planiscapus Nigrescens

6th March – Sieving more soil

It feels like we (mainly my husband) have sieved about 100 tons of soil since moving here! It certainly is tens of tons and quite honestly could be a hundred.

The ground here is ridiculously stony, as we literally are gardening on an ice age glazier.

We have now started on the house alterations which means yet more soil being dug. Rather than dispose of it we sieve it through a riddle, and save it in the many builders bags we have. We are intending to take a Pyracantha hedge out of the front garden at some stage and put another raised bed in, so we will be needing our lovely soil.

7th March – Baby Walnut trees

Having a large mature walnut tree at the bottom of the garden, inevitably means lots of little walnut seedlings coming up everywhere. The army of squirrels that descend on us in August don’t always remember where they have buried their nuts! I can’t let these little seedlings go to waste and so pot them on. I’ve given some to our local forestry walk.

8th March – New life

Sowing seeds and waiting for them to germinate is such an exciting and optimistic thing to do, all that promise.

The tomato seeds I sowed at the end of February have now germinated on the window sill and will now be moved the greenhouse to stop them from getting too leggy.

The pink blossom and perfect new leaves on the Prunus Pissardii ‘Nigra’ trees are emerging.

15th March – Back to work. Again.

I’m allowed back to work in Wales after another twelve weeks off. The garden has sustained me again! What a strange time we are living through.

17th March – The yellow Daffs of spring

We have six types of coloured daffodils out, the couple of white varieties seem to be a little later. Its hard to believe that I didn’t used to like daffodils! I now revel in their early colour.

Narcissi ‘Rip van winkle’, ’Tahiti’, Traditional, ‘White Lion’, ‘Falconet’, ‘Cragford’

I’m so excited to see this ‘Eremurus’ fox tail lily coming up in the front border. I planted it into a new bed two years ago and last year I only got one tiny little flower spike, half the size it should have been. This looks very promising!

20th March – Flowers everywhere

There are now more flowers coming out every day, what a wonderful time of year. I try and remember to take my phone with me whenever I go into the garden.

Hellebores, Primulas, Ligularia, Dicentra, Muscari, Fritillaries

24th March – Beautiful Day

I was driving home on a beautiful sunny day (note to self: everyday’s a beautiful day), when I noticed the daffodils by the church. I just had to stop and take a photo, don’t ya just love spring?

26th March – Tadpoles

A couple of days later than last year the tadpoles become a wriggling mass. As usual I get so much pleasure from crouching watching them, and I’ll enjoy the next few weeks seeing them grow.

29th March – Mums Camelia

On my regular weekly visit to my mum, I can’t resist a photo of her camellia. We both agree that it’s never looked so good, completely smothered in beautiful pink flowers.

30th March – First Asparagus

Today we eat the first asparagus of the season. Those first few spears taste absolutely delicious!

31st March – Wildlife Haven

There appear to be ladybirds everywhere, they are obviously one of the beneficial insects we set out to attract as they eat lots of aphids. In the winter it felt like everything I started to tidy had a ladybird hibernating under it, so we must be doing something right.

We also had goldfinch today right up by the house. We’ve had a few in the garden since moving here, more so in the winter, but this is the first one I’ve seen in the spring.

We set out to attract wildlife and we are now reaping the rewards as the garden attracts more creatures every year.

3rd April – Harvest the rhubarb, plant the potatoes

I had a peep under the rhubarb covers to discover it almost at the top. So off came the chimney pots to reveal the beautiful deep pink, fresh new growth.

It’s time to get the early potatoes planted, they’ve been chitting nicely on our bedroom window sill for a few weeks now.

I plant them in grow bags as when I put them in one of the raised beds it was impossible to get them all out.

4th April – The White garden emerges

The pear blossom is coming out and the broad beans have started to flower.

The White garden is now bursting with flowers.

5th April – Snow in April

We wake up to snow! I remember as a youngster hearing old people (over 40) saying “I remember snow in April!” I can now join this group.

My hardy broad beans and beetroot seedlings are standing up well to the arctic conditions. The tomato plants in the unheated greenhouse seem to be fairing well.

7th April – Rhubarb for breakfast

We enjoy the first delicious rhubarb for breakfast.

11th April – Muscari Walk

There is a pathway down the side of the summerhouse, it just has the holly hedge on one side and I thought it was a bit drab. As the muscari were coming into flower around the garden, I had the idea of planting them under the holly.

They spread like mad and I would imagine they would grow just about anywhere!

They immediately brighten up the space and I’m rather pleased with how they look, I christen it Muscari walk.

12th April – Blossom Time

There is lots of blossom out now, on the pears, apples and quince, lets hope its a bumper year. The fig is bursting back into life, and already has lots of baby figs on.

14th April – Cat bed

We seem to have created a cat bed. The builders bags filled with soil in the front garden, that I mentioned earlier. Now seem to have become the favoured new sleeping position of our neighbours cat. As long as he keeps using it as a bed and not a toilet we’ll be ok.

19th April – Harvesting spring greens

We are now eating the Pak Choi I sowed early in the year & asparagus. You can’t quite beat spring greens.

22nd April – New Toy

After years of bending and stretching with the small attachment on the hose I finally got a new water spray, it is fabulous and I wonder why I’ve never thought of getting one before. The added bonus is it doesn’t wet my gloves.

25th April – Favourite Tulips

My favourite tulips are out queen of the night. I think they look fabulous under the magnolia liliflora ‘Nigra’ and with the contrasting colour of the orange ‘Princess Irene’.

Tulip ‘Queen of the night under the Magnolia

6th May – Slug Wars

It’s time to start waging biological warfare on the slugs. I sent off for the Nemaslug, it’s a slug nematodes which is a natural organic pest control which is environmentally friendly. Slug nematodes are microscopic, transparent worms, which feed and multiply inside the slug. It doesn’t sound very pleasant, but at least it’s organic and won’t harm any other wildlife.

10th May – Out with the Carrots

We finish harvesting the the last of the carrots, which are a winter crop we grow in the greenhouse.

Every other year we dig the compost out and replace it, ready for the tomato and cucumber crops. This is the year for that, which is handy as we can reuse the compost in the new raised bed at the front when it gets built.

23rd May – The promise of things to come

There are so many baby pears developing on ‘Louise Bonne of Jersey’, it’s looking likely to be the best year so far.

The tomatoes are now covered in flowers and we have our first tiny little tomato forming.

The broad beans ‘Crimson’ are living up to their name with the gorgeous dark pink flowers. The bees absolutely love them.

I find the first baby frog of year in greenhouse, they seem to love living in there. A small fruit fly dares to fly close by and the froglet spins around and eats it. The circle of life!

24th May – Feeding the blue tits

As we sat in the greenhouse with a beer at the end of the day, we were thrilled to be able to watch a blue tit picking the seeds off the red hot pokers.