The Garden Year: May 2021

Hello there and welcome back to what has been my dormant garden linky. From this month onwards I plan to bring it back monthly, with the linky opening on the 1st of the month and staying open for the whole month. You’re welcome to link any posts that have a garden theme - this could be your garden, the plants you’re growing or the gardens you visit, or anything in between - just so long as it’s related to gardening.

For the next year I’m drawing on inspiration from the gardening legend Alan Titchmarsh and collating information in these posts which is widely available in the public domain.

So, let’s get on shall we?

Plants in their prime this month

• Rhododendrons - if you’re off to visit any gardens this month then it’s highly likely you’ll spot these, they can range from small bushes to large trees and have a ‘head’ of flowers.

• Clematis Montana - one of my favourites and one we see regularly in Norfolk. Dad has one in his garden and it’s trying its hardest to flower, the buds are almost fit to burst so I’m pretty sure it won’t be long before the pale pink flower engulfs his garden, and most of Norfolk.

• Wisteria - the classic early-summer flowering climber with its long trailing streamers of lilac-blue pea-like flowers. I’ve seen some in flower near to us already, so the are about.

• Tree peonies - they have giant crumpled tissue-paper like flowers on small woody trees, and not to be mistaken for peonies which are likely to make an appearance next month.

What to do in the garden this month

• Plant half-hardy and frost-tender plants. Summer wouldn’t be the same without hanging baskets and the big job for this month is to plant them up. Also pot-grown dahlias and exotics, as well as frost-tender vegetables such as courgettes, runner beans and sweetcorn.

• Be patient and prepare the soil. But don’t rush to plant things - if the weather looks iffy it’s better to hang on for a few days. Aim to plant things out from the middle of the month onwards, unless the weather is still looking iffy.

• Watch out for pests. It’s the month when they can be troublesome, but hopefully if it’s just a small outbreak, nature will take its course.

Watch out for, get ahead and last chance

• Watch out for late frosts.

• Get ahead and identify any gaps in your borders, so you know what you’re after when you visit the garden centre.

• Last chance, at the start of this month to sow a new lawn.

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Post Comment Love 30 April - 3 May

Welcome to this week’s #PoCoLo - a friendly linky which I co-host with Suzanne, where you can link any post published in the last week. We know you’ll find some great posts to read, and maybe some new-to-you blogs too, so do pop over and visit some of the posts linked and share some of that love. If you were here last week it was great to have you along, if you’re new here this week we’re pleased you’re here.

This week, because of the Early May bank holiday here in the UK, the linky will stay open until 11pm on Monday 3 May. Hopefully that will give you additional time to join us and spend time with friends and family doing bank holiday things.

This week I’ve had some time off from work and it’s been a good opportunity to reset, refocus and recharge. Hopefully it won’t all go out of the window when I’m back in my virtual office, though I think I’ll need to work hard to make sure it doesn’t. This week I’ve linked a post on my word for this year, which while later than I’d usually post, is my start on making the change I want and gives me some external accountability.

My photo this week is one from my noticeboard in my craft room, the new addition is the cross stitched hoop art of the sewing machine, which was one of my Christmas presents from mum and dad which we were able to open on our flying visit to Norfolk last weekend. It’s been a while since we were able to visit last October.

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My garden in April

It’s been quite a while since I shared a garden post here, and I’m really not sure why. I’ve been taking photos most months - as you’d expect December and January were a bit sparse - but somehow they’ve not made it onto here. So I’m restarting these online memory scrapbook of my garden with snaps taken during April, and over the next few weeks I’ll catch myself up, so don’t be surprised to see a spot of snow in the not too distant future.

But first blossom.

Both of our cherry trees are full of blossom, which can when blown have a snow effect. We don’t have the pink cherry blossom that everyone craves, and goes wild for, like Greenwich Park but white blossom is good by me. Our laurel tree has also flowered this month, and between this and the cherries the pigeons are having a blast.

The laurel needs a cut though, as I’ve noticed that when it rains only part of the stone circle which is close-but-not-that-close-by gets wet. In fact a few of our trees need a cut so we’ll need to call our tree cutters, it’s been a while.

Throughout the garden there’s pops of lime green euphorbias, it’s a colour that really lifts the space especially on the grey-er days. It seems hard to believe that last April we were already making use of the barbecue, not so much - or at all - this year.

Our reddy-pink camellia has finally flowered, it’s much later than our neighbours, as usual but even so, it’s been slow. Now that it’s here, it’s very welcome and very beautiful but I wish it wasn’t quite so reticent. In more exciting news at the far end of the garden, our newest camellia has flowered. I say new, it arrived in 2015 and has flowered before, but this year it seems to have really got the hang of it.

And like many camellias even when it’s fading, it’s still as beautiful. Our ornamental quince, with its orange flowers, is doing well with more flowers than I remember from previous years. Last year we really cut back the euonymus and I suspect that has really helped.

Some bulbs have other plants have self seeded in the grass, and we have our usual carpet of wild violets, which also seem to have found themselves a new home between the paving and slate outside the greenhouse. Both the leaves and the flowers are exquisite, though MOH is less welcoming to the ones in the grass.

We’re still waiting for the march of the forget-me-nots, they are rampant in our garden and while the blue ‘fluff’ is welcome to start with, it doesn’t last. Our challenge is always to pull them up before they set seed, so it becomes a bit of a race. We know that’s to come, but in the meantime let’s just admire the blossom while it lasts.