Hawthorn’s Garden

The blossom on the two cherry trees outside the living room window is now fully out, and looking lovely. I completely understand the Japanese obsession with cherry blossom - it’s the most gorgeous display.

Saturday 3rd. Warm, sunny/cloudy.

Went to the local Cottage Garden Society’s annual plant sale today. Had an ace time - each of the kids tooka few pounds, and came back with some treasures. Myself, I spent about £10 and bought a pile of things which I think will work in various parts of the garden. One or two experiments and random straggly items which I felt sorry for too, of course.

T managed to mend the lawnmower (by the simple but slightly worrying expedient of turning the key-hole casing with a coin, which apparently is enough to engage the starter motor. The wonders of British engineering…) and mowed the lawn. I planted some of the stuff I bought today (geum, lychnis, aquilegia, irises of various sorts, viola) and weeded a bit more of the bank of the beck.

Also cleared a bit of the brick patio at the side of the house, and prepared the kids’ flowerbeds for planting some of their purchases from the sale.

Bank Holiday Monday 5th. Warm, sunny.

A lovely early summer day. Planted some more of the stuff I bought at the plant sale (a kaffir lily, more aquilegia, an arum lily) and then turned my attention to the kids’ gardens. M planted her sugar-snap pea, a tomato, four honesty plants, a wild strawberry, a viola and a creeping jenny. O put in two rows of the carrot seedlings he has raised, but he also has a lot more plants to put in his garden (he rather lost interest after the carrots). C created a lovely portable garden in two plastic trough planters, with a tomato, a cerinthe, two honesties (sp?), a poppy  and a linaria. All three of them also planted bean seeds as a school project, to grow for the village show in September.

I still have a load of stuff to find a home for, and I’ve also started transplanting stuff from my pots into the garden. Today I took T’s rose bush from its longtime home and put it by the beck - it may not be sunny enough for it there, but at least it will have water which it often didn’t have in its pot (my watering schedule is erratic at best).

Monday. Sunny, occasional light showers.

Moved my lemon tree outside for the first time this year. Well, I say tree - actually it’s more of a spindly bush, which loses leaves indoors during the winter and grows them back in the summer. I grew it from a pip about two years ago, and am very fond of it despite its bad behaviour. Last winter it actually got eaten by a caterpillar and lost lots of foliage before I noticed and chucked the small green offender out on its ear.

Out on a walk with some friends I noticed that the ramsons (wild garlic) is almost in flower in woodland round here. I love the scent of ramsons, and would adore some in the garden on the banks of the beck, but it’s so very invasive that I would worry about it rampaging through the whole garden.

Saturday 26th. Warm, sunny.

Broke the back of a long-overdue job today - clearing out the shady pond and removing the net which has covered it over the winter. It was full of dead leaves and mank, and took three of us (me, T’s nephew J and his girlfriend C) with “assistance” from the children. There were more than a few startled frogs, and the poor fish who has lurked in the undergrowth all winter looked most upset at the sudden daylight and has taken to hiding under a stone instead.

The job’s not finished yet - the water is still murky and needs clarifying, and there are large ferns around the back (inaccessible) side which still need cutting back. Also, the pump has stopped working and I don’t know why - I think I’m going to have to take it apart to clean all the filters out. I don’t really understand about ponds, but since I’m the only half-way competent gardener in the house I’m going to have to learn.

Sunday 27th. Sunshine, heavy thundery showers.

Minor disaster in the garden today. I went out to give the back lawn its second mowing of the season, and managed to lose the ignition key for the mower. It got caught on my clothing as I was pulling the starter cord, and flew off somewhere in the garden. Of course, the grass is long, so we couldn’t find it, which means the big mower is out of action permanently.

I’m not the flavour of the month. The kids even got the metal detector out, but no joy. I just hope we can get it (or the old red one) working again before the grass goes completely out of control.

However, in the search for the key I cleared another 3-metre stretch of the bank of the beck, ripping out brambles and nettles, pruning holly, hawthorn and elder trees, and uncovering another (even more spindly) fuchsia. The first one looks hale and healthy, glad to see the light after so many years being choked by the undergrowth.

I really need to have a big fire in the garden - there’s a pile of prunings and garden waste as big as a good-sized shed, and I think my small brazier just isn’t up to the job.

The front pear tree is fully in bloom now, although the one in the back garden seems a bit slower. Beautiful flowers on my Mothering Sunday primroses, and (joy) my Calla Lily in its pot is putting on a new leaf. The dicentris in the side bed is in bud, as are the bluebells I planted there in the autumn. I weeded that bed today before rain stopped play.

Monday. Warm, sunny.

Bought a row of four small bush lobelia from the supermarket (25p each plant, can’t really argue), so now I have to find somewhere to put them. Overcome by the seasonal spring warmth I decided it was time to move the clover seedlings outside in their pot - they’re long and leggy from being inside, and I only had two germinate so I don’t really want to lose them. I’ll bounce them back inside as soon as there’s a sniff of frost.

Pulled a few winter weeds out of my pots, and cut some dead sticks out of the bamboo in the half-barrel by the workshop. It hasn’t really taken off yet - it was planted about nine months ago and doesn’t get much (well, any) direct sunlight, but it’s certainly not dead and I hope it might put on a bit of growth this year.

The poppy and lupin seedlings I planted out on Saturday are still alive. Well, I say alive - they haven’t actually wilted or been eaten by snails yet, so that’s a result. Whether they’ll grow or not is a whole different question.

Sunday. Grey, chilly, light rain.

More weeding today - cleared another few feet of nettles and other undergrowth from under the winter jasmine, and discovered a few more shoots of the jasmine comng through. Cleared around them and yanked out the nettle and bramble roots which choked the area last year.

Pruned the self-seeded elder bush at the bottom of the garden steps, so I can keep it in check this year and stop it from taking over. Also took a rusty section of chicken wire from around the flowering cherry in that corner, thoughtfully left behind by the previous owners of the house. Cheers. Cleared the steps of detritus and weeds, and removed more nettles and brambles from here too.

Before being driven inside by the rain I moved to the bank of the beck and dug out a patch of nettles which has been bugging me for ages. Pruned back the holly and hawthorn, and found (joy!) a small and decidedly struggling shrub which I think is a fuchsia. Cleared around it and pruned the dead wood - it’s about eight inches tall with about ten leaves, but I think it will thrive now it has light and air.

Found the first shoot of the knifophia I sowed in an indoor pot a few weeks ago, and moved my pair of olive saplings outside in their pots. The blossom buds on the pear tree by the pond are fat and white, ready to burst into full bloom in the next few days. Spring is really here.

Saturday. Weather: chilly, windy, grey.

Weeded the south-facing side border (under the office window) and dug out my poor calla lily bulb, which I planted in the Autumn. It grew beautifully until February, putting on four or five leaves, but then it got badly frosted. It died back and then the snails ate the new growth, so I’ve decided to move it to a pot until it’s properly established again. The bulb is still firm and looks healthy enough, so I have hopes for it.

In its place I put a pink-flowered heather (I think it’s an Erica x watsonii, probably ‘Dawn’, but I’m not sure - I bought it from a market and it wasn’t labelled). I also pulled all the new growth of nettles out from under one of the winter jasmine bushes which I cut down eighteen months ago (they were enormous and were blocking all the light from three windows). They’re just starting to reassert themselves - I’m going to let them grow back but keep them under control this time.

In the process I found a small clump of self-seeded forget-me-not which I put into the border by the house wall, and also re-discovered what I think is a climbing hydrangea (possibly Hydrangea petiolaris) which I put in against the north-facing wall when I cut down the winter jasmine. It obviously didn’t like it there, since it had only put on about two leaves, so I moved it to the other side of the path to the south-facing wall of the house.

Also planted out a few seedlings along the wall of the house  - a clump of poppies and two lupins. I’m not sure they’ll survive, even cloched and sheltered against the wall, but they were getting far too long and leggy to go much longer inside.

Moved to the other side of the house and lightly weeded the shaded bed by the beck. Planted a saxifrage which I bought yesterday from the same market stall as the heather - again, not sure of its exact type. From my book it looks a bit like a Saxifraga x irvingii, but with deep red flowers.