Thank goodness we are into May already. April, you did us wrong and we cannot forgive you the cold, the wind, the frosts and we are not sorry to see you leave. The worst part is that you didn’t even give us any rain to speak of.

I feel like I have been on pause in the garden for the whole month of April. Since my last post I haven’t been able to find something to write about, other than, “gosh isn’t it cold, can you feel that wind?” and “where’s my blanket?”

Don’t judge me, I’m old and I feel the cold…

Hopefully from here on inwards I will be more inspired to get back into writing regularly.

Following on from my previous post Spring Has Sprung, What A Delight! showcasing our fabulous Magnolia tree (above), sadly, as expected, it took the brunt of some savage frosts several days later and ended up looking like this:

Oh how I could cry.

Even the poor old Fig tree didn’t make it through April without damage. The frost had him too!

Out In The Garden

Onto better days, the bulbs are showing their faces and shrubs coming into life in the garden, little spots of colour start to emerge wherever you look.

I also have lots of these fabulous Spanish Bluebells. The difference between English and Spanish Bluebells is that as with these, the Spanish ones have flowers are all around the stems as opposed to English ones where the flowers are only on one side which makes them hang over rather than these which are upright. Still I have quite a few of these in pots and in the front garden to help perk up any dull day.

We have a new Wisteria to replace the one that Darren strimmed off last summer, he had best be careful with this one!

My End of the Garden

I love being able to disappear down to my end of the garden to mess around in the greenhouse and the raised beds.

We begin this Spring with our usual flowering apple tree, plum tree and our newly planted (last summer), cherry tree, which has just finished flowering. In addition to the tree, my mum gave me a cherry bush last year but that too looks like the frost got at it, time will tell how that fairs.

In pots there are blueberries, raspberries and strawberries in a cot that was gifted to me. Another no-dig bed, I appear to be growing to like these. The cot sides mean I can easily cover it with netting to stop the birds getting at the strawberries which in turn means more for me. I can also hang extra pots from here for the little off shoots too.

Also, there are onions, shallots and garlic which have been going all over the winter. Bags of potatoes below them, I am seeing if I have better luck with these this summer. I may not be a natural potato grower…

In the beds there are carrots, broccoli, brussel sprouts, artichokes and cabbages.

This is my first year of growing something other than tomatoes, runner beans and peppers and I am excited to see just how successful they can be with a relatively new gardener.

Most of these were started off in my lounge windowsill but thankfully once the days were warmer I was able to transfer them out into my greenhouse, even though it isn’t heated.

In The Greenhouse

The only place I have been able to hide from the cold wind in the garden is the greenhouse. It has really been the only place for any activity throughout the last few weeks.

There are a multitude of seedlings growing ever bigger; broccoli, brussels sprouts, artichokes, three different varieties of tomatoes, Stocks, Papavers, Antirrhinums, Rudbeckias, Coleus and I am still blown away at growing Dahlias from seed.

And Finally…

I’ll leave you this week with Mabel, whose current favourite game is catching a frisbee; it is a never ending game but keeps her busy so she stops trying to dig up half the garden and yet, she still does!