A very happy St Paddy's Day, one and all.
As the last few posts have been quite wordy, I've decided it's time for some pictures, and a stroll round the back garden to see what's growing before the promised heavy showers drive us indoors for the day.
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| Narcissus 'Tete-a-tete' |
The snowdrops and crocus are long finished, but the early narcissi are still flourishing and the first hyacinths are coming through. I think the tulips will be early.
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| View down the back garden path |
On the left-hand side is the small lawn and the flower borders, containing Narcissi, Alchemilla mollis, Heucheras, Aquilegias, Penstemons, Peonies, Phlox, Astrantias and Japanese Anemones. The herb garden is on the right.
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| The herb garden |
The 'herb garden' has been under-planted with a lot of spring bulbs. The crocus were a bit of a 'flash in the pan' this year with the unusually warm temperatures, but the tete-a-tete narcissi now look lovely, and the herbaceous perennial herbs will start to grow up through these soon. The woody perennials, two sage cultivars and two lavender, are still fairly small plants but will hopefully come into their own this summer.
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| Double hellebore |
Along the border between this and the path are some truly gorgeous hellebores. They were bought as a mixed random selection, so I don't have individual cultivar names, but they are fabulous flowers.
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| Inside the greenhouse |
The greenhouse is in full herb production now, with lots of young plants doing well, being kept clean of aphids by their ladybird friends. I will be looking for opportunities to sell them in May and June.
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| Salad selection |
Jon's famous coldframe, which he admits is a marvel of over-engineering, has been planted up with some fresh salad seedlings alongside the last few leaves from the autumn. I'll grub these out when the fresh stuff is ready. There are more trays of salad leaves germinating now.
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| The vegetable garden |
Beyond the greenhouse and the cold frame, the veg plots are also in use for propagation of some shrub cuttings and some daffodils, for selling at the gate as cut flowers. If I can keep the slugs off them.
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| 'Herself' digging in compost |
So that's how my garden looks today. There will be more of the usual daft stuff again soon, I'm sure.
