Spring in the Garden

I have been busy catching up after my week away. I have planted more seeds saved from previous years, Angelica, Morning Glory, English and French Marigolds, Fritillaria, clematis seeds of Macropetala and Nelly Moser although I am not very hopeful but thought it would be fun. I have successfully grown Macropetala from cutting so must try again this year. Nerines and lillies in the greenhouse have been re potted from large buckets to pots, the buckets were rather heavy to move even for Mike.

I have also treated myself to some more Regale Lillies my favourite and over the years they have deteriorated not surprisingly with the countless Lilly beetle I remove daily later in the year. I have also decided to replace some strawberries and plant out in a border. I had been growing in large planters but as we are short of space for standing the planters, I decided to try again in a border especially as I can now bend down to weed once more.

It is difficult to photograph the front garden without lots of cars being in the picture. Not only do I not consider cars as a status symbol rather a necessary evil and I can not understand the mentality of leaving them in the street or drive when there's a perfectly suitable garage to leave them in even if it is necessary to tidy up the garage first. Cars make any street garden look so untidy!

The back terrace or GAID is beginning to look a

bit more interesting now with one or two flowers.

The greenhouse is already rather full and although some pots have been moved out to the coldframes the juggling act has now started. On the left are cuttings of Penstomen, perennial peas from seed, sweet peas and a frittilaria a present from Rachel.

Beth caught in the act of rumaging in one of the veg plots which as yet has not been planted.

The border on the wall to the South side of the garden. The celandine do look nice but they can become a nuisance and will be weeded out when I get time.

The compost heap, well this picture says it all. We usually have 3 heaps the oldest from last year turned over and it becomes this years bed for courgettes/marrow. Unfortunately both Mike and I have been busy catching up on previous years shrubbery that has got overgrown so we are now left with an enormous unwealdy heap. My preferance would be to get a shreader as the bits would be usefull on the paths between the veg beds but Mike has always objected to the use of a shreader, just one of his funny ideas. So he tells me this Saturday he is going to do something with it, Hmm. This will be interesting, I can see I will have to bite my tongue!

The photograph of the border not very inspiring but it will be interesting to watch it develop as I

planted some shrubs and a tree in there a couple

of years ago. The last one is a shady patch to the South just before going back upto the house.