My goodness March came and went as quick as a flash!
The bitter chill has held everything back from flourishing for over a month and blossom should be in full swing by now. It won’t be long now, the temperature has soared in the last 48 hours and it felt positively tropical today.
During the freezing snap it was important to keep supplies going for the bird life, though Mr Nutkins managed to destruct the nut holder on several occasions, but with a few extra wires threaded through, I seem to have beaten his cunning tricks. He very carefully planted quite a few peanuts back in the autumn as now my lawn is pot holed where he’s raided his larder! During the days of my allotment in Putney Vale over 5 years ago, I was lucky enough to have a robin nest in my shed which was magical, I haven’t quite achieved that here as yet but give it time! Even so it’s not a bad start, I have managed to encourage an amazing array of feathered friends, including a pair of jays, a pair of bullfinches and a crowd of long tailed tits, yep my friends, I am a self confessed twitcher! Honestly it’s quite impossible not to be living here!
The work force at HC were hard at it over the Easter break. Beech and hawthorn whips arrived, together with 3 amazing crab apple trees from Branch Nurseries based in Lincolnshire arrived a few weeks before. Then not long after that another delivery arrived from RV Roger, a rather exciting package was waiting for me resting against my front porch, this consisted of a damson tree, a greengage tree and a standard gooseberry tree, all bare-root. Fortunately the cold snap meant that the urgency to get them in the ground was slightly lessened and they all sat patiently until the Easter weekend to go in the ground.
My mother is amazing, she cracked on with the planting of whips and trees, we even managed to sow parsley seeds on Easter Sunday (though traditionally my grandmother said that it should be sown on Good Friday, we just ran out of time that day!). We positioned and planted all the fruit trees, together with planting a double row of hawthorn whips and a beech hedge, both of which will provide privacy and cover for critters.
The bulbs have been pushing up through the ground revealing gorgeous greens, deep burgundies, deep blues & variegated tones. Their full blown glory isn’t too far away now, can’t wait to see the beautiful proud heads of the tulips open as well as the heavily scented burgundy hyacinths with the muscari. My colour scheme for year one is very Chelsea 2012, naturally I was highly influenced by our incredible garden last year for Laurent Perrier!
The latest resident to HC was given to me by my mother and brother, her name is Shirazz and she came all the way from the Duchy nursery in Lostwithiel, Cornwall. I’m looking forward to seeing this magnolia tree putting down her roots and growing into a beautiful tree to sit underneath with a cup of girlie grey tea.
April will be very green fingered, I can’t wait for my dianthus to arrive along with dahlias (thank you Liz!) and sweet peas, the list goes on and on. I’m also hoping to get connected to the water mains possibly in May, being on a spring has been rather lovely but not all that practical so if that wretched surveyor would stop dazzling me with unnecessary jargon and just get on with it that would be lovely!
