April – the frostiest April in 60 years and as gardeners didn’t we know it. All doing the daily dance of in out in out with the plants in and out of the greenhouse or coldframes. I keep getting reminders on my phone from posts of the garden that I have done over the years and this proves how far behind plants are this year. My wisteria that was so full of bud succumbed to the minus 4 temperatures and all the buds turned to dust. I have two fresh new buds and still no leaves, I’ll look on the positive side and think maybe it will allow the dahlia’s light for longer to help give them a head start and I’ll enjoy the other colour in the rest of the garden instead.
With these cold nights still, I haven’t managed to move plants out of the cold frame yet, so it is full of hosta’s, salvia Amistad, and agastache Blue Fortune. I could do with getting everything in the ground so that I can get to Longacres and get the bedding ready for the summer pots, but due to the weather, I’ll hold off for another week. However, I was really pleased on a recent trip there, to pick up some 2 litre agastache Blue Fortune, which will create a central point of my pots for the patio again this year. The bees love them and they are a perfect height. Never one to waste plants my agastache I had in the pots last year were transferred out to the garden with the hope that they would make it through the winter. Agastache can be a bit hit and miss as to whether they make it through the winter as they don’t like to be cold and wet, but with the light sandy soil we have and a good layer of Strulch over them, I’m really pleased to see they are flourishing this year.
This month with everything starting to romp away in the garden (despite the weather), it is time to get plant supports in place. Normally one for leaving it on the late side, I thought I’d buy some grid plant supports that will be hidden with foliage as the season progresses.
After 8 years at our house and with the borders becoming more established, I decided to treat myself to a new spade, the Transplanting spade. With its long narrow head, it makes it easier to dig amongst the other perennials so that I can plant out new plants. I’ve found my regular spade was rather too wide and risked damaging other plants, so I enjoyed a morning putting new plants in a clients garden using this last week and will plant out my new hostas when I’m sure the risk of frost has passed.
When the sun is shining, it is a great opportunity to get out into the garden and continue with the weeding. Our central flower bed was a solid mass of ground elder when we moved in, so all the plants were removed, the ground elder cleared and the bed was replanted. I still have ground elder now, (can you ever get rid of it), but as I don’t use chemicals in the garden I keep on top of it by hand weeding every couple of days. It is a job I love to do and I find it incredibly therapeutic, a time to think things through, and see what has grown from one week to the next in the garden. Other than that, I’m enjoying the bluebells down the end of the garden which are currently at their peak and constantly pottering, sowing seeds, moving plants around to get maximum sun and try and harden them off and getting the garden ready for the Camberley Gardeners Open Gardens. This will be our first year organising this event and we are lucky to have some local gardens on board. The event has kindly been sponsored by Longacres so that we can raise money for The Hope Hub who works to prevent homeless in Camberley and surrounding areas.
