So these aren’t really my department after all if we all watered them they’d die by drowning, however, they do deserve their place here as they are plants and they cheer up the house. The last picture is of an avocado tree, daddy has been trying to grow these for years by planting the stone and we’ve never yet had a fruit and this particular tree is trying to take over it’s spot in the porch. It’s growing so fast I think you could watch it grow!
What a lovely sunny and windy day for working in the garden, 22 miles per hour wind speed – Daddy is very interested in tracking our weather!
But I have lots of sweet peas to plant and according to Monty Don from Gardeners World I should have already done this job. I couldn’t decide between pink or white so bought a pot of each and ended up with 30 plants. I then ordered a support frame online and when it came it was a kit of bits, not what I was expecting at all. Anyway, Daddy has got it in the ground, replacing the Acer tree that died last year, he did use his industrial strength drill to get through the roots. I also put some in a large pot and have the pink ones still to plant and a few to give to friends. I have also spread many slug pellets as I really don’t want them eating.
A few pictures of what’s flowering in my garden to finish and I’m slightly spoiled for choice as the garden is full of flower – especially forget me nots which self seed and my neighbour keeps forgetting the name of!
An amazing smelling lilac bush which has been in the garden for years. Mum threatened it with being dug out recently and I have been talking to it and encouraging it to flower and guess what it has!
Just a quick post to share pictures of a spring garden at Quarry Bank mill national trust property in Cheshire and less than 15 mins from my post. Despite this fact this is the first time I’ve actually driven there and I’ve been driving over 10 years. They have a lovely garden fairly recently restored and I’ll definitely be going again soon.
Daddy used to work at Apprentice house in the ’60s, the 1960s he likes to point out and not the 1860s as some people apparently think that’s when people last worked there. Grandma (daddy’s mum) also volunteered in the mill spinning and was there when I visited as a child with school.
So yesterday I watered some of the garden and today while I write this blog it’s chucking it down with my washing outside and no I don’t want to bring it in as I’ll get soaked!
I have finally potted on my sweet peas although according to BBC gardeners world I should be planting them outside about now, which is fine but according to the weather forecast it could be cold at night so I think they are safer in the greenhouse for now, I have 30 little plants and I only really wanted about 10 but I couldn’t decide between pink or white so I bought them both! My seeds are doing pretty well – lots of cornflower, creamy yellow cosmos and zinnia have come up but so far no primrose, sweet William or white foxgloves. I think the latter may have been washed away. Such small seeds and I watered one day without the thing on the end of my watering can.
Last pictures of tulips today and I promise not to bore you anymore. They didn’t do as well as the expected sadly and I will be putting a numbe for pots worth into the ground shortly. The daffodils on pots continue to do well year after year so I will plant more of those next time. Also a picture of my wallflowers in pots and they smell lovely!
Just a little post to end the week with my favourite tulip Jan Reus. I originally had 10 and now only 3 are still in my garden and sadly I can’t find them in the shops. I’ll keep looking and one day hopefully I’ll find them again.
I can’t believe it’s April all ready, time is flying so fast! There is much to be done in my garden – yet more tidying, weeding, grass cutting, seed sowing, planning if we need any more plants. That said, I don’t look after this garden alone. Well 4 gardens – I’ll try and explain more in a future blog. Anyway, we each have our areas of work. Daddy cuts grass, does heavy digging work if I can’t manage and have already attempted it and looks after the compost heaps. He also looks after the fruit trees although I usually pick the ripe fruit. Mum looks after bushes and cuts the lawn edges while I collect them. Me – I look after the flowers, sow seeds, weed, tidy, plant containers of which we have quite a number, water in the summer and whatever else hasn’t already been covered.
Oh and if you thought that’s all I do as there is so much listed I used to have a full time job and will hopefully again one day. I only actually spend maybe 5 hours a week out there between April and October and much less in the other months.
I also garden for my neighbour across the road at this time of year once a week. She has a lovely spring garden with much colour and scent at the moment, with primulas, muscari and daffodils flowering,
I have some foxglove and cosmos seeds waiting to be sown but I need to buy my seed trays first. Last years were too flimsy to be reused. 
There is so much on flower right now in the garden so here are a few things I haven’t already shared. Some gorgeous new dark red tulips, muscari and a pieris. (I hope that’s how it’s spelt).
My favourite colour of blossom or flower in the garden has got to be white. Although I’m sure some would say it’s not a colour. I have several plants and a tree currently flowering in white. I can’t name the daffodils sadly as there is no proper name on the label I kept! I also found a label for done gorgeous white tulips which didn’t flower last year or come up at all this time.
Here they are: the magnolia featured in the last blog but it has improved since then and deserves another picture I think! Also pictured below is a dicentra (white bleeding heart), such a beautiful flower. I did have a pink one in the same flower bed but it’s disappeared this year!
Update – May 2017 another white flowered plant – Spirea Van Houti (probably spelt wrong) I have white foxgloves in the greenhouse too but as I sowed them as seeds it’ll be next year before they flower being biennials
Just a quick post today. I just noticed my first tulips in pots flowering so thought I’d post my pictures. I think one of these is ‘orange emperor’ and the other ‘cilesta’ but I’m not aura which is which as one is open and other closed. I have a number of other tulips so will post them as they flower.
Also 2 pictures of violas in pots, both with funny stories. The first pot has been on top of the water butt in the front garden for months and one day I went out and found the whole plant on the ground and the pot a few feet away. It turns out that storm Doris had blown the plant out! The other pot is actually primulas but violas have grown in there instead.
I am told it was the first day of spring earlier this week and it was so cold and wet, the garden couldn’t have been told about the season change! I love spring as every time I go in the garden I notice something different growing and in some cases flowering. It’s also a time when I can get out weeding, tidying and planning what to grow this year and if anything needs to move place.
I have a selection of pictures of what is currently flowering including some cute new daffodils called ‘minnow’. I hadn’t realised they’d be so small. Also a forsythia and magnolia and another hellebore. What’s flowering in your garden?
I have made this feature rather difficult for myself this month as I have been so excited to find new plants flowering I have been posting about them straight away. However, I am constantly finding new things in flower. This time it’s another paler pink camellia in the garden which is much older than the first one I posted and also a tree in the back garden which I can’t remember the name of which has lovely white blossom and looks great with a bright sky in the background. What’s in flower in your garden?
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