My garden in April

Last month it was all about the bulbs in my garden, this month they’ve been and gone. The tulips were a bit of a let down really, and so I think they need some attention once they’ve died back. My plan is to repot them so they’ll have some fresh soil for next spring, and while I’m at it some of my daffodils would probably also benefit from the same treatment.

This month it’s been about the shrubs coming back to life, though not all of them are there yet disappointingly. There’s been a first visit to a garden show - more on what we saw there in a future post, but carry on reading to see what I left with and my plans for those.

With nice weather it’s surprising how quickly things - and specifically plants - change. At the start of the month this acer was only just coming into bud, a fortnight later it was in full leaf and looking really healthy. These past few hot days has seen it drop a few leaves, so plenty of water when it cools down in the evening has, I think, been helping.

Likewise our crab apple tree started to develop the red buds of blossom in the middle of month, so for our family barbecue, it glistened jewel-like in the background, and then boom - the blossom was out in all its gloriousness a week or so later. I’ve many more photos of it than I’m sharing here, but please indulge me a bit of home grown blossom love!

Yes, you can see how it’s quite addictive!

Elsewhere in the garden the dogwoods also started to flower, and yes they’re still in the pots we moved them in. Over the winter I’ve been trying them out in a new spot - one that we can see from the house, so when their stems are at their vibrant best we can enjoy them from inside. We’re happy with the spot they’re in now, so they are earmarked for planting out when the conditions are right.

The peach tree has shed all its blossom now, and there are a few tiny, tiny fruits starting to develop. It’s shot up too, so I think I’ll be able to train one, maybe two more horizontal branches - though I do need to get some more canes (or shackle enough together) to do this.

It’s also developed what I’m pretty sure is peach leaf curl, a fungal disease which causes red patches - and while they in themselves are quite stunning, they can’t be doing the plant any good. The advice is to remove the affected leaves as quickly as possible and before the fungus blooms, which I’ve done, and hopefully this will reduce the risk of reoccurrence.

I’ll be keeping my eye out for any more leaves, and removing those too. The solution is apparently to cover them with plastic over the winter months, which clearly is a bit late to know about now. Anyway, let’s hope it’s just a blip and it continues to grow and produce at least a couple of fruit.

Our longer term plan is to plant it at the base of the wall (which will make it easy to cover in plastic sheeting in future) but exactly where is still unknown. If planting it out is its next step then I could probably make a call, but if it’s happy to continue in a pot then I have one - and a much bigger one - on standby. We bought this at the Newark Garden Show, and while it looks like terracotta it’s actually plastic, and it’s one of the best I’ve seen. It’s much lighter than a terracotta pot (obviously) and a bit more resilient too, and if the peach tree is ready to move then it also gives me a bit more decision-making time!

We also bought a new, but aged and distressed, iron sculpture at the show - it’s currently still in its black plastic wrapping but has moved inside the garage for the time being. Getting it into the car was fun, but we managed it with the seats rearranged and MOH sitting in the back holding it in place.

Last year I only left the show with a couple of lupins, as our new garden was still very new to us and my plans were completely unknown. This year my appetite for plants has returned a little, and we did make some purchases including these Southern Globe Thistles which are perennials that like full/part sun and should flower in July/August with blue spherical flower heads.

This unusual Iris caught my eye - its flowers are a copper bronze and mahogany and it’d normally flower in May/June and once again it’s one that will return each year. Then there were a couple of dark flowered and purple leaved Penstemons, which along with those pictured will look great in a cottage garden type setting, which is lucky as that’s something I have in mind, but in the meantime I’ll continue to grow them in pots, potting them on as I need to.

I also succumbed to a fatsia, we had one in our previous garden which was huuuge but also very forgiving and very structural. This one is quite a bit smaller, and since seeing the white fatsia at last year’s Gardeners’ World Live it’s clearly been playing on my mind. I didn’t even know you could get white fatsias, but a variegated one seems like an even better option to me.

It has a bit of growing to do though, and I’ll be potting it on through a variety of ever increasing pots I’m sure.

Then I picked up a couple of tomato plants, this year opting for something a little more unusual than the Gardener’s Delight which I picked up from a garden centre late-on last year. There’s a red Honeycomb cherry tomato plant on the right, and a black skinned variety on the left.

It’s the tomatoes that have made me realise how much I miss having a greenhouse, and that not having a greenhouse makes seed growing quite hard work! That means it makes sense to stick to buying some plants for the time being, and that planning a greenhouse really should move up my priority list. And so it seemed right that my final purchase from the show was these tiny vintage terracotta pots, to add to my growing collection - and which will have pride of place in my new greenhouse one day!

Aren’t these just fab? And that one with PINK written on the rim, well I couldn’t leave that one there now could I?!

Blossom and magnolias in the gardens at Gravetye Manor

Last weekend we had a family lunch at Gravetye Manor - it’s a great place and the food is even better, but taking a wander around the gardens afterwards is equally as good. A while back I shared more of the Kitchen Garden here, and the pretty blue and while tiles in the loos, which are still the same though it was all about the tulips on our most recent visit. I didn’t make it to the kitchen garden on this visit, but I did enjoy a stroll around the garden full of blossom, and tulips as you’ll see.

We were lucky with the weather, which meant that although we didn’t get up to the kitchen garden, we did spend a good amount of time wandering around the gardens without the need to hurry.

The spring bulbs were very much in evidence, both in the garden and throughout the interior and on the tables in the restaurants. The restaurant makes extensive use of their kitchen garden (as you’d expect) and that clearly is the ethos for the manor house and hotel too.

While I’d walked through these gardens before, it was the first time I’ve really spent any time here and for them to be the main focus of my post here. I explored new-to-me paths, all the time my route bringing me closer to the blossom-laden trees.

And it was worth it.

Not only was there plenty of blossom, there were magnolias of every colour.

And the scent. Just fantastic.

The lichen also caught my eye - no change there then! - but also look, the giant snowdrops were still flowering too. Definitely a joyous overload of spring bulbs and flowers, and absolutely gorgeous.

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.

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!