Through the Garden Gate--March 2023

March has not been very Spring like this year. We've had a lot of rain, it's been cold, windy and we even had a bit of snow. The rain has been constant and stopped me from getting out into the garden to do jobs. I've had to dodge the showers and take advantage of the odd couple of hours of a dry spell or sometimes  I've been lucky and there's been a whole day of sunshine too good to waste. We are just longing for some fine, dry weather. 

Despite this bad weather we've managed to do quite a bit of work in between the showers.  Most of the borders have now been cleared of dead foliage and leaves. In the back garden we mulched the beds with a soil improver. We spread a bark mulch on the woodland wildlife bed in the back garden and on the hosta bed in the front garden. The garden always looks so much better when this has been done, it suppresses the weeds for a while and shows off the lovely bright green of the emerging plants.

Although the weather hasn't been very Spring like there are still plenty of signs that Spring is here. There are buds on the trees and some are starting to open up so there's a little haze of green as we look out the house windows.

In the beds the spring flowers are coming into bloom. There is plenty of yellow from the daffodils.

Clumps of primroses are dotted around under trees and shrubs and as a contrast blue pulmonaria and the forget-me-not like flowers of the brunnera are opening up now. 

The pulmonaria pop up all over the garden. This little one has turned out a pale pink, I've never seen one that colour before.

I bought some drumstick primula and planted them in the front garden.

The patio pots are mainly full of daffodils, but there are some violas too and the tulips have buds which hopefully will be flowering next month. 

The clocks went forward last weekend so we have longer days for gardening. There's lots to look forward to in the coming weeks. Hope you all have a happy  Easter. 

I am linking this blog post to Sarah's blog at 'Down by the Sea'  for her monthly 'Through the Garden Gate' post.

Through the Garden Gate--February 2020

The wet weather continues and the garden is still very soggy, there seems to be no end to this bad weather.  I know I am not alone in longing for some better weather.

There are some bright spots in the garden though as bulbs start to appear.  Earlier in the month it was the crocus, now it is the tete a tete daffodils.

I planted them so they can be seen easily from the house windows--in case bad weather prevented me from getting outside. Good planning there, I think! On the patio are containers of daffodils which we can see from the window at the back of the house.

When I have managed to brave the weather and walk around the garden I have spotted clumps of flowers down in the bottom border nestling under the trees.

Here you can see how wet the ground is.

These primroses have been flowering for weeks and weeks.

Down in the woodland border the hellebores are out. These have also been flowering for a few weeks now.

This one is a lovely colour. Its called 'Anna's Red'.

Most of the helebores hold their heads down so you can't see the front of them, but these are better.

  I cut some to bring indoors and I could see their faces better then.

I am linking this post to Sarah's blog at 'Down by the Sea' for her monthly 'Through the Garden Gate' post

Through the garden gate

This week I am joining with Sarah at Down by the Sea for her monthly garden slot--'Through the Garden Gate'. In this slot you are invited through the gate into my garden.

This is the gate which leads out of my garden, but I thought I would show it to you as I rather like this view. Of course the photo  was taken in the summer, but it's good to remind myself in the dreary winter months when there's not much colour in the garden that things do get better.

As we move through February and into March I am now looking forward to new growth in the garden. I am also thinking about new projects and plans I have for this year.

It's taken me a few weeks but I have finally finished clearing the borders of all the dead plant material in both the front and back gardens. The work never ends though, I'm sure in a week or two I will be starting again with the weeding. As I worked in the borders I noticed areas which needed re planning, some of them I have been thinking about for a while and am not sure what to do about them.  They keep getting put off each year.

In the front garden there is a bed where at the end of last year we removed a couple of very old and tired looking hydrangeas and lots of crocosmias. Crocosmias are really difficult to get rid off so I know they will keep reappearing . But I now have a big space in this bed and I'm wondering what to plant there.

At the moment I am enjoying the spots of colour coming from the tete a tete daffodils, but as I look around I can see other flowers just starting to open up. There's pulmonaria, anemone blanda and vinca-- lots of blue. Also there's a euphorbia with yellow bracts providing a bit of brightness in the shady areas. The back garden has a lot of shade and I have to work with that and just see what will grow. Spring  is usually a good time for these areas, before the trees get into full leaf.

cyclamen and snowdrops in a shady spot

Here's another gate in my garden. it leads into what we call the woodland garden.  There's only one tree, a lime tree but it's big and so the area gets very shady in the summer.  I've got three white foxgloves  to plant which a gardening friend grew from seed.  I think they will look lovely in the woodland garden later in the year.  In the meantime the daffodils and crocus are looking good.

Digging up the daffodils

This week I have been planting daffodil bulbs on Plot 8.  I dug them up from Plot10b where they were planted in a long, narrow trench in front of the greenhouse.  They did really well there even though the soil was solid clay with some compost added. I hadn't expected them to do well, because of the heavy soil.But each year for the last three years they have provided us with lots of cheerful colour in the spring along with some crocus.

Now we are giving up Plot10b and thinking about what we want to take with us and have room for on Plot8, I decided I really didn't want to leave the daffodils behind.  So earlier in the summer I dug them up.  It wasn't easy getting them out of that sticky, compacted soil, but I ended up with a big tray of bulbs. Many more than I had originally planted. I also found some of the crocus bulbs.

The next step was to find somewhere on Plot 8 to plant them. I finally found a spot under the conifer hedge, which we had cut back drastically when we first took the plot on. It gets some sun for part of the day. I added a mixture of well rotted manure and home made compost to the soil. I planted them in clumps, so that if I wanted to put any other plants in there would be room.

The last time I dug up daffodil bulbs and replanted them, they didn't flower.  I will wait until spring and hope that I will once again have some cheerful colour to brighten up the allotment.

Woodland planting

 The woodland area in our garden tends to get a bit neglected. That's because it's hidden away at the top of the garden through a little gate. I clear it up about two or three times a year. But as it's a bit of a wildlife area it doesn't look too bad for being left to look after itself. Spring is the time when It gets its first tidy up. There are lots of crocuses which start to emerge about now so I like to clear up all the leaves and tree branches which have fallen during the autumn and winter and reveal some colour from these flowers. There's ivy, vinca and honeysuckle scrambling along the fence too which always need cutting back. I noticed this week that the vinca is flowering, I love those little blue flowers at this time of year. There's also a clump of hellebores which is looking lovely.

I started the clear up last week. Once I'd cleared away all the debris and done the cutting back I was able to see what else is coming through and soon to flower. There was a small clump of mini daffodils amongst the crocus. I thought some snowdrops were needed, every woodland garden should have snowdrops. I planted three little pots, but they looked lost--you don't get many snowdrops in a little pot. I shall have to get more. I also bought some trays of tete a tete daffodils for some more instant colour. Holly the cat joined me as I planted and must have thought it was some sort of game as she kept digging up the bulbs--naughty cat!

Planting  so early in the year I had to be careful of not disturbing any other plants which had not started to show through.  The soil is  a bit compacted with roots which can make planting difficult.   Plant labels always seem to disappear through the winter and I often struggle to remember what is in there. What are those tiny leaves just poking through the soil? Ah yes I know--Brunnera!
It's looking much better now, more colourful and very spring like.

Coltsfoot and daffodils

Things are starting to grow down at the allotment, but it’s not vegetables it’s flowers.  We planted daffodils in the autumn under the holly bush on plot 10b and along the front of the polytunnel.  The soil was awful, it was wet, sticky, yellow clay and I wondered if the bulbs would grow at all.  But they did and they now have buds ready to burst into flower any moment and cheer us up.  Every time we go to the allotment we look at the bulbs to see how they are doing.  There's one daffodil ahead of all the rest which we've been watching carefully, and today it had burst into flower.

Over on plot 8 our new allotment there didn't look to be anything growing, it's still being cleared of rubbish and all the important jobs like drainage being sorted. But amongst all the rubbish I spotted some bright yellow flowers.  It was a pot of tete a tete daffodils.  I rescued them and brought them over to plot 10b where they could be seen. I also found some clumps of yellow Coltsfoot. This is one of my favourite wild flowers which reminds me of my childhood.  It used to grow on the land near my home.  My wildflower book tells me it is one of the first indicators of spring. It's probably classed as a weed by gardeners and allotmenteers, but I love it.

There are some people at the allotments who say ”If you can’t eat it don’t grow it”. Not me, I love to see a few flowers brightening  the place up.

Pots of spring cheer

One of my favourite plants at this time of year is the dwarf daffodil, Narcissus Tete-a Tete.  They are available now in pots to buy from garden centres and florists. I have them in the garden and in containers with spring bedding and will probably be planting out more in the next few weeks.  They are so colourful and will brighten up any dull spot in the garden.

They can also be grown indoors and that's what I have been buying them for this week. At this time of year when the days can be really dull and dreary they are great for bringing a bit of spring cheer to the house.
I re pot them into clear glass vases, pretty pots or even jam jars and they look lovely.

When they've finished flowering I just plant them out in the garden and they'll flower again next year.