April, the month of sunshine, showers (although hardly had any of those in the last month), and even the odd snow shower thrown in for good measure.
The soil is really starting to warm up and you can feel its heat when you are working with it. The plants are springing into life, and I have spent time in the garden over the last month clearing the last of the dead plant material from the flowerbeds and mulching which makes the fresh green growth pop against the dark mulch.
Sadly a few months back we had to have an old silver birch tree removed that had died due to the droughts in 2018 / 2019. I was hoping to keep a large proportion of the trunk for wildlife but it was deemed unsafe so came down. We now have big gap in the hedge to fill, so in order to extend the evergreen part of the hedge to go with the Viburnum Tinus and Laurel I bought a 10L Choisya Ternata from Longacres. I rather lucked out with being able to get a 10l plant and it looks great in its new spot. To add some colour to the hedge I also purchased a Ribes Sanguineum King Edward VII so whilst it will take some time to fill the gap, I’m looking forward to the scent from the Choisya and adding some further interest to the hedge to compliment the rhododendrons and to extend interest throughout the year.
The garden is currently full of hyacinths, pulmonaria, daffodils, primroses and the tulips are just starting to flower. Everything in the garden seems to be late this year, due to the cold weather we’ve had so we are a couple of weeks off the bluebells coming out in our woody area, with the odd one popping into flower. My wild area, is a balance of giving nature a haven, but still needs some management to keep the wild geums and ground ivy under control. I’ve planted out some Digitalis Alba as once the leaves come back on the oaks, it can be fairly dark in there and the white should lift the back part of the garden. It won’t be long before the red campion is in flower as nectar for the bees, and in the meantime, they can enjoy all the primroses.
I’m gradually building up my selection of geraniums, and have added Geranium Sylvaticum Mayflower and Geranium Gravetye this year. However, once I got home from Longacres I did realise that I actually need to let the bulbs die back down to find space to plant them and make sure I don’t dig something else up in the process, we’ve all made that mistake in the past I’m sure.
I was very kindly donated some beautiful hosta’s by a local gardener at the end of last summer and due to the gravel path that runs down the length of the garden hostas seem be left alone by the slugs. With this in mind I couldn’t help buying a few more to add to my collection, I just need to keep them protected from frosts and will strulch them once planted to protect them in case any slugs are wandering past.
I’ve been stock piling some 9cm Agastache Blue Fortune. They are such beneficial plants for bees, and make a great central feature of my pots on the patio in the summer, I will pot them on from their 9cm pots into 1 litre pots when they are big enough and then grow them on, until they are large enough for my summer pots. This is a really cost-effective way to garden and with stock uncertainties at the moment, sometimes it is better to buy when you find what you are looking for, rather than wait and be disappointed.
This month is the time of year to keep on top of the weeds, a job I actually really enjoy. It gives me the opportunity to get to know what is growing and is the best way of getting to know your garden. In autumn 2019, I took some cuttings of Erysimum Bowles Mauve, and whilst I thought for a while they wouldn’t flourish, with a bit of patience I’m now really happy with the result. Having never done cuttings of them before I didn’t realise they would take this long to develop into a decent size plant, so maybe it is time to start off some new cuttings and get ahead.
For the moment I’ll confess to having a day indoors and waiting for the warmth to return when I’ll enjoy the garden and get on with potting up all of my foxglove seedlings.
