April in the garden

Strangely enough April seems to have flown past, I can’t believe tomorrow it’ll be the first day of May.   So many changes in the garden in a few short weeks. Tulips that were purchased specifically because they were late flowering, more specifically May flowering, to coincide with our NGS open day in mid-May have come and gone and the pots emptied and re-filled with scented leaf pelargoniums.    The tulips were lovely but if we plan to open the garden for Charity next May I will have to be more careful in my choice of bulbs this autumn.

The early spring bulbs are now being replaced by Alliums, their numbers boosted by another 100 bulbs planted last autumn.    The first of the Iris are in flower, Langport Wren is a beautiful deep maroon, soon to be joined by Iris English Cottage and Iris Sable which are currently in tight bud.    The first peony to flower is always Peony Mlokosewitschii – or Molly the Witch as it is more easily referred to.    It bears pale lemon flowers and this year has two!    This poor plant was purchased maybe 20 years ago from what I always refer to as “the dead department” at a local garden centre.   It was tiny, in a 3 inch pot and was expensive although it was a ‘reject’.   It has moved house with us once and is now in its third and I hope, final position in this garden.    If I can leave it be now maybe we will get more blooms in the future.

The Wisteria is in full flower and it has survived my attempt at pruning it in January while the expert wisteria pruner in the family was attending to hedge laying.   The flowers smell wonderful and with windows open fill the house with their scent, and the odd bee that takes a wrong turning!

For the last couple of years I have taken charge of pruning Rosa Belvedere, a lovely rambler rose that is planted one end of a wooden trellis.  The other end is occupied by Rosa Gertrude Jekyll and they are speeding towards each other to meet in the middle!  I have pruned the rambler rose during the winter months (which is probably not technically correct), cutting off some of  the long growths that were waving across the drive trying to ensnare us and tying the rest horizontally along the trellis.   Now looking at the plant, it is covered in strong new shoots which I hope will bear hundreds of small pinky/white flowers in a month or so.

The area we refer to as the “Spring Area” in the garden is now filling with Geranium phaeum Samobor, white Comfrey, Lunaria and Queen Anne’s Lace (a much nicer name for Cow Parsley).  Not everyone would welcome the Queen Anne’s Lace but it is at the edge of the garden bordering the Orchard and we like it.   I would prefer more to grow in the Orchard and once the seed starts to set I will carefully pull the plants up and shake the seed around in the Orchard.

Wildlife abounds too, the cuckoo was heard for the first time this year on 21 April.   Every morning I see a pair of blackbirds pulling worms out of the lawn, I assume they have a nest nearby and thrushes are also seen regularly.   A robin has chosen a shelf on an old dresser in the shed to make its nest,  it makes me jump most days as I go in to select tools.  This year a pair of Mandarin ducks have returned to nest in a hollow apple tree near the back door,  what a privilege to see them wandering around the garden and  then seeing the female fly into her nest.    Ducks are a bit of a theme as we have also been ‘adopted’ by a Mallard duckling.   It appeared one afternoon a fortnight ago from underneath the yew hedge.   No other ducks had been seen or heard in the vicinity although we had noticed a buzzard flying across the garden a little earlier.   We assume the buzzard may have caught the duckling and then dropped it.   It literally has landed on its feet as we have been looking after it carefully ever since.  Luckily the local farm shop also has a Country Store selling animal feed and I was able to purchase what it needed whilst undertaking “an essential journey” for our food. In the space of two weeks it has more than doubled in size.    We have no doubt that in time it will return to the wild but it is welcome here for as long as it needs shelter.

After a month of more or less unbroken sunshine and very warm weather it is almost a relief that this week it has rained and re-filled the water butts and freshened the garden up.    The weeds will be growing as I type, so I’ll be able to occupy myself with some more weeding later today.