Through the garden gate--April

Back in October I celebrated my 70th birthday and my daughters gave me garden vouchers, which is one of the best presents to buy me. Stocking a new garden with plants can be expensive and although I brought a lot of plants with me from my old garden there are still other plants which I would like.

I really wanted another tree for the garden and after much time spent looking at trees in garden centres I finally decided on a crab apple--crab apple 'Evereste' is the one I bought.  I like crab apples because they have blossom in the Spring, good autumn colour and fruits which the birds love.

When we planted the tree a few weeks ago it had lots of deep pink blossom buds on it. It finally burst into flower at Easter with beautiful white blossom. It has been the star of the garden during April and is still looking good.

Underneath the tree are two pots of tulips which I planted up last autumn.  They are lovely shades of white and pink and look lovely next to the white apple blossom. It's funny how sometimes plant combinations work well even when they were unintentionally put together.

The amelanchier has also been flowering during April and was a joy to see.  Outside our house on the grass verges lining the road are trees full of pink blossom. April must be the month for blossom.

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

spring sowings and plantings

It's getting to be a busy time on the allotment now.  After weeks of tidying up and getting the plot ready for the new growing season suddenly everything seemed to burst into life in the flower areas bringing some lovely colour to the plot. The weeds are growing too, which is a sign that the soil is warming up and its time to start planting and sowing seeds.

Over the last few weeks my kitchen has been full of pots of seedlings and propagators. I started in February with chillies, then tomatoes followed by cabbage, kale, brussels sprouts, cauliflower and leeks. Now I am sowing flower seeds for a cutting bed in the garden or for filling in gaps in the other borders. Also for the allotment to attract the pollinators.

Down at the allotment I have two greenhouses but they are not heated so seeds which need warmth in the early days are sown at home where I can give them some extra care in the kitchen. Once they are potted on I then take them down to the allotment greenhouses.

Weeks ago I sowed broad beans and pea seeds. I planted the broad beans and peas out in the ground last week. They are looking good and its great to see something growing in the allotment beds at last.
Over the Easter weekend I sowed another lot of broad beans directly into the ground.  I shall be sowing peas soon too.

There's so much too do now. The greenhouses are filling up with seedlings. After weeks of bare soil the allotment is beginning to look like its coming to life and soon my kitchen will be clear of pots and propagators.

Through the garden gate--March

We've had some lovely days out in the garden recently. At this time of year as the new growth starts to come through I always think it's like meeting up with old friends. I'm so pleased to see plants again and look forward to them flowering later on. There are others which I remember planting last year but where are they? Then when they appear at last I am so pleased. Last year everything was newly planted in our garden, this year there are bigger clumps and more flowers. It's good to see that they are happy in their new home.

There are lots of spring plants in bloom now and each day more buds appear on different plants. Down in the bottom border which is very damp, the marsh marigolds which came as cuttings from the allotment pond garden have buds about to burst open.

There is lots of blue and yellow about in the borders at the moment from the Brunnera and pulmonaria, the primroses and daffodils.

Last autumn I planted up pots with blue violas and they are now coming back to life. The tulips I planted in containers have got big fat buds and I am so looking forward to them flowering to see if the colour combination I chose works.

A few weeks ago I bought a tray of mini daffodils and a tray of muscari and planted them in a container hoping that as the daffodils started to go over the muscari would be coming into flower. And that's exactly what happened!

The Amelanchier tree is about to burst into blossom. We planted another tree recently--a crab apple. I spent months researching trees and deciding which one to buy. It has lots of pink blossom buds and will be flowering soon. 

The bees are busy, we have seen butterflies and I don't think I have ever seen so many ladybirds so early on in the year. There have been quite a few in the house over the winter, they have been hibernating in the bedroom window frames.

I love this time of year when everything in the garden is so fresh and new. It's all about new life, growth and change and there's so much to look forward to.

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