Sunny days

The days are getting more spring like now, it's lovely to be outside in the sunshine. It's only a few weeks since I was enjoying the snowdrops in the garden and now they have gone over making way for the daffodils.  The tulips are starting to flower in their pots on the patio, in fact only last week the first ones burst into flower, an amazing orange which made me stop in my tracks to admire them. 

And this week these tulips started flowering. I planted them last autumn,  I don't know the name of them but they are amazing.

The garden is looking lovely at the moment. The borders have been cleared of all the debris from the dead flowers and most of them have now been mulched. I have been putting ornamental bark down on the stumpery area in the back garden and the hosta bed in the front. All the hostas are grown in pots which seems to help keep the slugs away although not completely.

I love to see the garden looking like this at the start of spring, like it's ready and waiting for the explosion of flowers in the next few weeks.

As I walk around I can see how clumps of flowers are getting bigger. At this stage I have to be careful not to plant anything where I think there is a space, because that space is likely to get filled up soon with plants as they start to grow bigger

Through the Garden Gate--April 2023

The plants in the garden  have really grown in the last few weeks filling out in the borders. Everything looks fresh, green and bright, thanks to all the rain.  Looking at the flower beds now they have filled out I can see where I need to thin a few plants out. Weeding gets easier now; as the plants spread out more there is less to do. Shoots which were just appearing at the end of last month are now recognizable and I can identify them. There were one or two plants which I nearly got rid of thinking they were weeds, so glad I didn't!

 

The Marsh Marigolds put on a good display down in the damp border, but are going over now as are some of the Pulmonaria.  I can see buds on some of the hardy geraniums ready to open any day now and the Geum 'Totally Tangerine' is flowering.

 The Amelanchier blossomed and went over, it was lovely while it lasted. Now it's the crab apple's turn to flower. It's probably my favourite of our flowering trees.

 I love to grow flowers which I can cut for the house and with more flowers starting to appear I've been cutting a few now and again just for little pots around the house.

I didn't plant any tulips in the autumn, thinking I had enough in pots from the previous year. But they didn't put on a very good display, I think some have rotted. So I bought some ready potted ones and they are starting to flower on the patio. They seem to be mostly orange, which is not a colour I normally go for but I'm liking them a lot.

Our twin daughters had their birthday in April. Sarah lives some distance from us and we didn't get to see her for her birthday, but Helen lives just down the road from us.  She wanted some roses to plant in her front garden so that was her present from all of us. I suggested a visit to a local plant nurseries, Holden Clough which sells David Austin roses and where we often like to visit. Situated in the Ribble Valley on the outskirts of the village of Bolton-by-Bowland it's a lovely place  for an afternoon out. 

When we went they had an Artisan market on--something they do on weekends in Spring, Summer and Christmas.  There's always good quality stuff like, jewelry, candles, toiletries, woodwork, scarves, bags etc. from local craftspeople. The nurseries  also do good food so we had lunch too. 

The plants are very good quality and really well displayed in sections like-- sunny borders, damp shade, cottage garden plants etc. Although a bit more expensive than our usual garden centre, sometimes it's worth paying a bit more for a plant you can't get anywhere else and I've often been able to split a plant into two or three smaller ones. 

So we had a lovely afternoon browsing the stalls and buying a few things, looking round the plants and garden sundries and a nice lunch too. Helen chose two roses and a lupin and I bought myself some pots of tulips and a little Auricula. I have a small collection of Auriculas but have never got around to finding a good place to display them. They are all on the garden table until they finish flowering.

As the garden starts to come back to life I enjoy spending more time outside, either doing garden jobs or just sitting. We still haven't had much decent Spring weather, so I'm hoping for some warmer, sunny days in May. Hope you are all enjoying your gardens.

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-April 2021

 

Only a few  weeks ago after I had mulched all the garden beds, I was thinking how flat and boring they looked. But now they are filling out and looking greener and more colourful day by day.  Everyday as I walk around the garden I can see more new growth and buds appearing on trees and shrubs.  All this new growth seems to creep up on us giving lovely surprises as we spot something else which is now in flower or has filled out a bit more.

The tulip tubs have been in flower.  I am more of a pink and purple person when it comes to colour in the garden, so I was surprised when two tubs which I had planted up in the autumn produced orange tulips.  The colour on the label must not have been as true to life, but I really like them.  I moved them away from the pink pots so they wouldn't clash then I spotted  pink tulips coming through in amongst the orange pot. I don't know what went wrong there!

I planted up a lavender hedge either side of the archway with some free lavender plants which I got from an offer in a gardening magazine. I was really pleased when they arrived to find that they were good sized plants. There were ten so five on each side of the arch fitted nicely. I'm looking forward to seeing and smelling the result later in the year.

My husband fitted a wooden edge to one of the borders in the back garden to neaten it up.  It should help to contain the plants which flop over and had been damaging the lawn.  

Holly seemed to approve of the new development!

There was a Ceaonothus shrub in this border which I bought a couple of years ago and had grown way too big for its space, next to the Liquidamber tree. We decided to move it and checking its label I read that it could be grown as a wall shrub or a tree. Not surprising it had grown so big then. What a job it was moving it, with branches all over the place and heavy roots! Its now in its new place further along the border with more space. I have pruned it into a tree shape and its blue flowers are starting to open up. We had to do quite a bit of moving plants around to accommodate the Ceanothus, but the border should look better now.

There has been so much blossom about in April and many trees are still opening up with their blossom. We have blossom trees on the grass verges outside our house and they are looking lovely at the moment.  

Our Amelanchier tree has blossomed and gone over but the crab apple is now opening up its flowers.

There is so much to enjoy now in our gardens and much more 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.

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

Planting tulips

If the rain ever stops I might get some work done in the garden and at the allotment. I keep sneaking out when there is a brief dry spell to do a few jobs. Last week I managed to plant some tulip bulbs in pots. I've never grown tulips before, but I've been admiring the Sarah Raven Tulip collections and for my birthday this year my daughters bought me some. They came in two lovely hessian sacks--very useful.

I planted one lot at the allotment in a big deep plastic tub which I grew carrots in this year. The tulips  should brighten up the allotment next year.

 

The rest I wanted to plant at home in big pots. I used an old enamel bread bin for one planter and a deep pot for the other.  I planted them in layers. The first layer, near the bottom of the pot but with a two inch depth of compost below them.  Then I added more compost and placed another layer of bulbs on this. I topped with a final layer of compost, making sure that the bulbs were at least eight inches deep.

There are still plenty of bulbs left and I was running out of good sized pots, but on a recent visit to the RHS garden at Harlow Carr we spotted a 'buy one get one free' on some lovely pots which will look great planted up with tulips. The only problem was that they had 'Yorkshire pots' engraved on the side of them and we live in Lancashire! Well I'm sure the engraving will soon be covered in moss and no-one will know. So I'm now waiting for another quick dry spell when I can dash outside and get the rest of my tulips planted up.