Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Farway

I enjoyed yesterday's sunshine, not out walking though, around here on BH's it's normally packed so never chance it

I did spend some time in the garden taking photos though, still trying for "the" shot

Lots of blossom buds ready for any real warmth to trigger opening, my rhubarb seems very late when i see pictures of others with tree trunk sizes ready for crumbles, all in all my garden at present is a lot of promises but not much action

However the plum has a t last started, just in time for the frosts, however it is staggered opening so all being well there should be plums again this year

Here's one from yesterday, plum blossom

quirkydeptless

My plum tree is in full bloom

My cherry blossom is just starting to open

My apple and pear blossoms are well on the way

greenbee

Cherry blossom is starting here but the plum very sensibly isn't bothering yet!

twopenny

Oh the sunshine and the Hawthorne - thoughts of Sloes and the brew come next autumn

There are some magnificent Magnolias in the area too, it was hard to choose. The variety of under planting was interesting with everyone choosing something different.

Makes you hopeful for the future.

Haven;t done any gardening today, the sun was fine if sheltered but a strong cold wind. Did go to the charity plant stall though and get another bearded iris 'Sable' so now I have 3 rhyzomes to start a group. Have some deep red ones I paid a fortune for and some Dutch iris. Love them when they bloom with an old pink rose.

https://www.gardenersworld.com/plants/iris-sable/

No apple blossom this year. Guess that was the pruning on the young trees but had to be done. Plum, cherry and Greengage going strong if there are enough insects around in this weather. We'll see.

Apodemus

Enjoying all the blossom pictures!  Thankfully all my blossom is still to come, as it wouldn't have survived the current weather!  After three days of -3C overnight and +3C maximums during the day, my alliums, which were coming on nicely, have completely collapsed - time will tell whether they recover.   I think the wind has also done for a lot my tulips, whose heads were just too heavy to cope with the buffetting that they've been getting.  This morning the ground is quite hard again, so the frost is managing to go deep.   

I rushed out on Saturday to get a first cut on some of the grass ahead of the snow, without taking the risk of frost into account.  In the end we've not had enough snow to protect the grass from the frost, so I am expecting a lot frost damage to the newly cut ends.   

Feeling sorry for the new lambs that are appearing locally in this weather, but the "lambing snow" is an annual occurrence, so I guess shepherds and gardeners alike should really be expecting it.

Davesnave

Great photos 2p. I see forget-me-nots are open over there, whereas ours need another week, showing how warm your area is. The gorse is doing well too. We have precisely one gorse bush and it's not quite out yet, but that might reflect the haircut the tractor flail gave it!

Yesterday wasn't too bad out of the wind. I was warm enough down in the bottom hedge giving a 15m run of hazel a final haircut with the chain saw after that tractor guy made a mess of it.  Now, shoots will break at the bottom of each stem and thicken-up.

Meanwhile, DB began planting-up her herb garden, but she's set me a puzzle of how to extract two standard bay trees from their planters.I think it will be a long job.

Lovely blossoms Farway and Quirky. I'm embarrassed to say I don't know what our plums are doing.

My courgette plants have baby courgettes forming.....and outdoors it appears to be snowing!

Farway

Sunny but very cold, I think another day for looking and not doing

However my runners are really up & running in the propagator now, so moved to the window sill for max light, had to move the Welsh onions seedlings into the conservatory to make some sill space, but they should be OK out there being hardy plants

All the tomatoes, still on the sill, are now getting "proper" leaves

The only thing left to sow are some dwarf French beans but I'll wait a bit until more space

One of my experimental try & grow an apple from a pip has germinated, I checked on progress of my T & M bare root order, dispatch "expected" tomorrow , maybe my pip will have fruited before it arrives

phoebe1989seb

Hi all, thought I'd join you if that's ok? 😃 I've been reading along for ages, but it was Dave's reference to the two standard bay trees that made me decide to post as coincidentally that's one of the jobs I did over the Easter weekend!

Bit of background - we're originally from South Hampshire but are now in Carmarthenshire (via Essex, Wiltshire and the West Midlands, lol!) and as well as restoring our 400 year old cottage that was built as a mill, we are creating a half acre or so cottage garden from scratch. We also have a small area of woodland and part of a leat.

As a result of our home and garden formerly being owned by the *big house* (a fairly important local landmark), our garden is on the Welsh Historic Parks and Gardens Register which makes it sound grand - actually what we inherited when we purchased the property in early 2018 was a bleak landscape of overgrown laurels, some huge (mainly beech) trees, one or two leggy shrubs, a lovely Acer, loads of spring bulbs and tons of weeds, particularly ground elder 😡 The estate agent's marketing blurb referred to this a "magical garden".....hmmmm!

Anyway, this is our fourth spring here and the garden is making slow, but steady progress. We are very much still learning what suits the predominantly wet weather conditions and as such have made a fair few mistakes, losing some plants along the way.

In the first instance we set about creating a pretty oasis in which to chill between building jobs (mostly DIY) and digging. Fortunately we had a ready-made space for this, by way of a small walled area attached to the side of the building. Within it DH built four raised beds using new oak sleepers, surrounding them with gravel. We added our Lutyens bench and a few pots with climbers etc. This would become our mini kitchen garden 😉 

Elsewhere, we have been laying out beds and gravel paths as well as a small orchard area where - one day - we plan to have chickens. The centre piece is the rose garden, comprising four beds intersected by paths in the form of a + sign. These currently contain forty-seven rose bushes, mostly David Austins, twelve Sarah Bernhardt peonies, loads of alliums and a few other bits and bobs.

So, for a change it wasn't a wet bank holiday weekend, but wall-to-wall sunshine, although it became increasingly cold/windy as the weekend progressed. On Friday we drove to one of our favourite local-ish plant nurseries and stocked up on a mix of perennials, shrubs and dwarf conifers as - despite my attempts to grow from seed in our small polytunnel - what we've planted over the past few years has barely scratched the surface 🙄

On Saturday in glorious sunshine DH began addressing the ugly area adjacent to our front door. A gently curving bed, sloping down to a small lawned area, at door level the scrappy path was bounded by huge rocks interspersed with ground elder. We'd previously tried growing a few things in the sloping bed (lavender...was never going to work, alliums and box balls/cones) but - except some day lilies and Solomon's seal - all had fallen victim to a mix of poor soil, too much rain and suffocation by weeds!

The new, levelled bed will have oak sleepers separating it from the path and will be planted primarily in whites - my loose homage to Sissinghurst. There will also be new steps down to the lower level.

While DH got busy with the power tools, wheelbarrow and spade, I decided to repatriate a pair of standard bay trees from a pair of gothic style planters where they've sat flanking the French doors into the extension. These were in a sorry state, pot bound and one completely waterlogged. They came out easily and will add some height to the new bed!

Yesterday the wind was biting but by mid morning the sun came out and we cracked on with more gardening. As DH removed the edging rocks, I moved those that weren't too heavy to lift to other beds where they will again form a rustic boundary. I confess to doing a spot of planting elsewhere in the garden, despite warnings of snow overnight..... I got a couple of Rheum Palmatum Rubrum in as well as a few Euphorbia Martinii, an astilbe, four bare root roses and two dwarf conifers. I fleeced my new peonies and put straw etc back over the recently uncovered gunnera.

The forecasters got it right for once and overnight we'd had a light dusting of snow followed by further flurries this morning. Fortunately I'd moved the most tender of the new plants under cover last night. The sun is shining again now on the cherry blossom and first bluebells, but DH is back to his day job and there'll be no gardening for me today 😎

Apodemus

Phoebe, sounds like a wonderful spot you are in and a fantastic challenge!  I'd love a leat as part of my garden! 

phoebe1989seb

Thanks, Apodemus! Yep, it's certainly a challenge 😉

Meant to say, beautiful pics of the blossom, magnolia et al 😃 I'm only able to use my three year old smart phone for taking pics at the moment and the quality isn't the best, but will add a pic or two as I go along.....

Weather turned to sleet here now!