Through the garden gate --March 2024

 

Well, Spring has arrived, but it hasn't brought any good weather with it. We continue to have lots of rainy days. The garden is starting to look more colourful, lots of yellow and blue from the daffodils and pulmonaria. The trees all open up their buds at different times. The Amelanchier is the first to flower, it looks attractive even before the blossom comes with  a haze of pink buds. I can see it will be flowering in the next week.  

We have had some dry days and I have been very busy trying to get the Spring jobs done. Pruning is a job to do in March and I've gradually got most of that done. I decided that the twisted willow tree needed a prune too, it grows very quickly. One branch which was growing very tall needed some attention and it involved Richard up the ladder with his saw and me holding tightly onto a rope tied to the branch to stop it falling over the fence on to our neighbour's car. I don't think we would have been very popular if it had! I cut the branch up afterwards, it's twisted stems will make good supports for the peas at the allotment. Other smaller stems look good in a vase and the remaining thick stem was sawn up and put in the bug hotel. Other very small bits of twig are left on the lawn for the birds to help with their nest building. Nothing wasted. Holly enjoyed playing with all the branches too.   

I started tidying up the borders and mulching. I have almost finished the back garden and then will start on the front and side gardens. It's a long job and hard work, but the garden looks so much better when it's done. The mulch shows up the emerging plants well, I can see what is coming through as I go along and decide if any need moving or thinning out. 

The tulip pots are starting to flower. I planted some in the autumn which were a mix of purple and orange and I am quite pleased with them, although the orange ones look more red than orange, but the colour combination is quite good. I have another pot which looks like they are going to be white although the label I put in says orange. Either I have labelled them wrong or the garden centre did. It will be interesting to see what they turn out like.

I love the pulmonaria which are flowering now and how they self seed around the garden. They pop up in unexpected places. I usually leave them unless they are in completely the wrong place. 

The euphorbia are in flower too now, growing well in the shade of trees or shrubs. I have been cutting them and the pulmonaria for the house, they go well together. Also starting to flower are the brunneras and primroses --more blue and yellow.

This weekend is Easter and after a rainy week it looks like Saturday and Sunday will be sunny days then we will be back to rain next week. So wishing you all a very happy Easter and enjoy your gardens.

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--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 -- March 2020

Well, what a month March was. The awful wet weather of February was followed by dry, sunny days in March. Such a welcome change. Not so good are the awful changes in the world.  How long will it last we wonder?  Lockdown affects us all and brings many challenges. Our daily life at the moment is different. For us we miss our children and grandchildren so much. But we can find consolation in the garden, focussing on jobs, watching the wildlife, it's easy to forget other things going on around us for a while.

The daffodils are going over now and the tulip tubs will soon be flowering. One pot of tulips has burst into flower already, they are a lovely pale colour with a bit of pink.. There are two varieties in this pot and although I put labels in the pots I don't know which belongs to which. I think this one is Angelique. 

Just before the garden centres closed down I bought a couple of packs of violas and planted them up in a galvanised tub. I am really enjoying the lovely colours.

I also bought some saxifraga and a little aquilegia which I have displayed on the garden table with some bulb pots.

I have been tidying the borders and mulching them with compost. 

 They look so good when they are newly topped with compost and it will keep the weeds down for a while.

Before I cut the dead plant stalks down we had a visit from a group of goldfinches. They visit the garden occasionally but never stay for long. The blue tits are regular visitors, we see them most days. I'm hoping I can still buy bird seed during this time of shortages and being asked to buy only essentials.

I hope you are all keeping safe and well.

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--March

I can't believe we are now at the end of March, where did it go?  There has been a lot of wet weather around, in fact I often wondered if it would ever stop raining. But now at the end of the month we are finally seeing sunshine.  So I have been hard at work getting the garden borders tidied up of debris and weeds. There is so much to do now.

It's a lovely time of year as things start to grow and the garden becomes more colourful. The green of the new growth is a sharp contrast to the blues and yellows of the flowers. The mini daffodils are going over now and the big daffodils are out. There are a lot of blue flowers emerging--chionodoxa, saponaria, brunnera, vinca which are looking really well with the lime green euphorbia. My tulip pots are not flowering yet but won't be long I'm sure.

I had a lovely surprise when I opened the cold frame last week. I found several auricula plants which I had forgotten about.  I had put in there in the autumn. I don't know if they really need to be protected overwinter, but I think I was just having a big tidy up session at the time. The auriculas were starting to flower so I have now taken them out of the cold frame and put them on the garden tables where I can enjoy them.

This month I am linking with Sarah at Down by the Sea for her monthly 'Through the Garden Gate ' slot.

Time to get seed sowing

 

 March has arrived and in just a couple of weeks we have had a mix of snow, sunshine and showers. But in the last few days the weather has become drier and we have had some lovely sunny and warmer days. These sunny days make me want to just be outside as much as possible and after a fairly quiet January and February pottering around the allotment, suddenly I am aware that there is plenty to be getting on with. I won't be planting anything outside yet as the soil will be too cold, but now that we have two new greenhouses on the plot I can't wait to get to work with some seed sowing indoors.

The potatoes are now chitting in trays and egg boxes and the onion sets have been planted in module trays.In February I started off seeds of leek, broad beans, sweet peas and lettuce. Now that March is here there are so many more seeds I can be sowing, the list has got longer.

 

It's good to see the greenhouses filling up with seed trays.  At the weekend I sowed some pea seeds in a length of guttering and put these in the bigger greenhouse.  These will get an early start and when they are ready I will be able to ease them gently out of the gutter and into the soil.

 I have also sown, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and cucumber, and with a list as long as my arm, every time we go to the allotment there's still more to be done.

What are you growing in your greenhouse at the moment?