The Garden is Calling!

I’m sure you all think I’ve deserted you over the last few months but I just haven’t had a minute to let you know what’s been going on in the garden. Truth is, the bare minimum but every now and again I feel the garden calling!

The house renovations continue at a slow pace, sometimes two steps forwards and one step back! But it will come to an end – one day! And I will be able to devote much more time to doing what makes me truly happy and relaxed – gardening.

In the meantime I’ve just about kept my head above water with the gardening jobs, although we did have to get a professional gardener in to cut the 80ft long holy hedge as it became clear that we were not going to able to do it. I’m pleased to say that he made a very good job!

I did squeeze in a quick trip to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show earlier this week, which has forced me to download my hundreds of photos, encouraging me to share a few with you here today.

The White Garden

The flowering side of the garden largely takes care of itself, with only light weeding required as there is a layer of bark suppressing the majority of weeds.

The white garden has been as good as ever in this early part of the year, it is definitely a spring and autumn garden. I am working on the mid season planting a hydrangea and sowing many digitalis.

Froggies

I’m pleased to say that I have more frogs than ever, as I approach the pond there are a lot of splashing sounds.

On the 16th February they started massing but it was 2nd March before the first frog spawn appeared. Tadpoles followed on quickly and I now have a garden full of frogs, occasionally making me jump and involving an odd swear word!

Return of the Insects

That first day back in winter when I hear the first buzzing sound around my head is a very happy day indeed! By this time of year the garden and greenhouse are full of buzzing sounds, I’m always amazed that they don’t crash into me.

It’s turning out to be a bumper ladybird season, which is good as they eat aphids. On the other hand I’ve been shaking lots of lily beetles off, yes you’ve guessed it, my lilies! They have bright red backs, but very sneakily have black tummy’s and if they think you are onto them, they drop to the ground upside-down so that you can’t see them!

Dolly Tubs

The tulips in the dolly tubs weren’t even worth a photograph, they were pathetic! I put this down to the excess rain we had, maybe you remember it lol. It’s no wonder they rotted, I’m surprised even a few weak ones made it to flowering.

I’ve recently taken the remaining bulbs out and put dahlias and double pink begonias in, so I’m hoping for a much more impressive summer display.

Early Harvest

We had a good early crop of purple sprouting broccoli which took us straight into the asparagus season. We’ve been eating rhubarb for a few weeks now and we are not far away from the first strawberries.

The tomatoes I sowed in March were planted in the greenhouse bed last week and are already romping away. The red cabbage have also grown away well since going into the ground.

I decided to plant some spare pansies in between the red onions as they look pretty and are also edible.

Flower Power

May is the month when you can hardly keep up with the amount of flowers in the garden. Back in January you could count every bloom in the garden, but each month brings more gorgeous flowers of every colour and shape.

This is the time of year when spring meets summer and you hardly notice the passing of the early blooms as you are almost overwhelmed by the abundance of perfect new foliage and flowers.