Through the garden gate--April

April is such a lovely month in the garden, there is so much fresh bright green foliage about and the borders are starting to fill out with new growth. The colours in my garden at the moment seem to be blue and yellow. Brunnera, forget-me-nots and bluebells contrast well with the lime green euphorbia and primroses. The aquilegia are just starting to flower, the hostas are unfurling their bright green and yellow leaves and the apple tree has blossom. There is so much to look forward to as we move further into Spring.

Hostas

The herb bed which I planted up last year is filling out now

Moving forward is what we are doing ourselves as we prepare to move house, so this may be my last blog about this garden. We are moving at a time when the garden is looking its best, so there is some sadness. Perhaps it would be better to move in the winter when the garden doesn't look as good.

So I am busy now taking cuttings of plants I want to take with me and  decluttering the shed. But as our daughter and family are moving in to our house we will be able to return, take more cuttings, sit in the garden and still enjoy it. We are not moving far, just up the road to a smaller house with a smaller garden. We are at that time in our lives when we need to downsize. Our new garden will be a challenge and it 's a chance to design another garden so we are looking forward to that. I'm not sure how Holly will enjoy moving to another garden.

I am joining with Sarah at 'Down by the sea ' for this monthly post 'Through the garden gate'

Planting time

After what seemed like weeks of continuous rain, the weather finally perked up and it was so good to get down to the allotment at last to get important jobs done. April is a busy time on the allotment and it's important to get seeds started off and plants in the ground.

The first job I wanted to do was get the early peas and broad beans planted. I had started these off in the greenhouse weeks ago. The broad beans were grown in cardboard tubes and the peas in lengths of guttering. They were both looking really healthy and strong. Last year when I did the peas in gutters I had quite a poor germination. So this year I sowed  more seeds in the guttering. The variety is Douce Provence, one I have not grown before. As you might expect, this year it looked like 100% germination, so there were an awful lot of pea seedlings!  They were sown in three short lengths of guttering which fitted easily in the greenhouse. 

The pea and bean bed had been well prepared in the autumn with a layer of manure. A few weeks ago I weeded and hoed the bed and applied some blood, fish and bone fertiliser.  So I was all ready to start. I made a trench about a couple of inches deep and six inches wide, slid the pea seedlings out of the guttering directly into the trench, then tucked them in carefully. In past years I used long lengths of gutter and found it difficult to slide them out, but using the shorter lengths was much easier and because I had sown so many peas they had rooted well together.

Next was the broad beans which I planted about four inches apart still in the cardboard tubes which will rot down in time. I had enough to plant a double row, about ten inches apart. There are two  varieties, The Sutton and Express, which I also grew last year. The peas and beans will need some support and I will do that soon before they start growing properly.

That was enough work for one afternoon and there's still plenty to do, but it's good to see things growing in the ground again.