My garden in March

Last month there were hints of colour starting to appear in my garden, this month there’s been a lot more. It’s all been about the daffodils and the pops of colour they’ve brought to the border, the wallflowers and the start of the tulips.

Back at the start of the month, this is how it started.

But by the end of the first week, our first daffodils flowered. And the others weren’t too far behind them either.

Not all of the garden is back alive yet though, the fuchsia bushes - but I’m hopeful they won’t be too far behind.

The viburnum though is already flowering, and it’s great to see.

A white flowering vibernum

It was great to spot that my new-last-year wallflowers started to show signs of flowering, and I’ve been keeping my eye on them.

But we’ve also had some early blossom from the peach/nectarine tree - it’s not that surprising really as it’s much warmer by the old brick wall. It seems happy here - it’s still in a pot - so it looks as if it’s decided on its long term garden position, which is where I hoped it would be happy!

It was a month of surprises though as some daffodils sprung up amongst the wallflowers, and I’m not really sure where they came from. I’ve not had daffodils in that pot before, and it’s unlikely that they were in the pot with the wallflowers when I bought them, so it’s a garden mystery.

The tulips started to show themselves too, peeking out from their protective leaves. I really need to find a better place for them as if it stays windy they won’t last for long, but wherever they end up I want to be able to see them from the house - it’d be a shame to miss them wouldn’t it?

I had another surprise bulb appearance too. This time a bluebell in my rhubarb pot, this could have been in there a while as we had bluebells in our previous garden, although not knowingly in this pot - but the leaves don’t look like those bluebells, so maybe this one was a present from the birds. I’m happy it’s here though.

The wallflowers have been slow to show their flowers but they are finally starting - they’re a variety called ‘Chelsea Jackets’ and are a mixture of pastel colours.

And what a way to end the month, with the first proper tulip flowers growing taller, but not flowering just yet saving themselves for next month I’m sure.

Thanks for joining me for this month’s update, you can read all the posts in this series, and join me next month to see how my garden continues to grow!

Hidden Depths by AitchBee at the Newark Quilt Show

The quilts I’m sharing today from this year’s Newark Quilt Show include the maker’s love of typefaces and letter forms, as well of their fondness for 3D imagery. It won’t be a surprise that AitchBee trained as a graphic designer, but now thinks of themselves as one who works in cloth, enjoying the precise imagery that comes with foundation paper piecing (FPP), which is something I’ve not tried myself yet.

All of the quilts are amazing, and one is my all time favourite from this year’s show. I like its cleverness and spent a fair while looking at it, before I really saw it - and then looking at it through my phone’s camera lens made it so much easier to see, and then you wonder why you never saw it before.

The quilt is called Negative Space, which again is clever and did more than raise a smile.

NEGATIVE SPACE

I’m not sure how well it translates on a screen, so read down each column of letters and hopefully you’ll get it - if not, think of the quilt’s name, and then it should materialise. And of course, then you’ll realise that there isn’t any negative space at all!

It’s subtle, beautiful and yes, I’d happily have this one anywhere in my house.

But there were more quilts too, the one below at first you see the cubes, then you look more deeply - and the more you look, the more you see.

NEW PERSPECTIVES

Those small blocks are 1 1/2 versions - now that’s small, and no doubt fiddly.

I’m also a fan of how these are quilted, with multiple vertical lines and it’s something that I hope to replicate on my Essex Linen kisses quilt, but there’s a way to go on that yet though!

OCEAN STAR MIDNIGHT

I love the colours on this one, and it includes FPP blocks ranging from 1 inch to 16 inches across so that’s a good reminder that not all blocks need to be the same size, though of course that makes it a lot easier.

The final quilt I’m sharing from AitchBee is full of colour, and couldn’t be further from the first one in this post colour-wise, but it’s an expansion on that, and includes the whole alphabet.

BLOCK CAPS

This one is an expansion on the Negative Space quilt, and includes the whole alphabet. It was interesting to read that they got stuck on the letter ‘B’ needing to enlist help with it, and a lot of coffee and cake before it looked right. Reassuring too, as it’s good to hear that even quilts which end up looking up as good as this aren’t always plain sailing.

So much inspiration here, and in a completely different way to the other quilts I’ve shared from the show. It almost makes me want to try Foundation Paper Piecing, but I know I really shouldn’t add more to my list, well just yet anyway!

The Garden Year: April 2025

For this year’s Garden Year linky I”m going to share advice from Songbird Survival about how we can make our gardens the best they can be for birds.

My garden has sprung into life in the past month, and it’s been a very welcome sight. MOH has started to cut the grass, though now he’s realised the blades on the lawn mower need some attention so that’s on his list to sort out. I roped him in to help me catch up with the lavender bushes too, just giving them a light trim as we missed the opportunity to cut the flowers back at the end of their flowering season last year. Thankfully it was a gloriously sunny morning, which was just as well as we had five lavender bushes to tackle.

#ThinkBirds

April is a good time to prepare for summer and sow wildflower meadows and hardy annuals, which are great for encouraging insects. Or why not plant a buddleia, there’s a very good reason they’re often known as the butterfly bush!

Advice, inspiration and places to visit

Leave a link below to share what you’ve been up to in the last month, or add a comment sharing your plans for the upcoming month.

“TheGardenYear