Yes!!!! At last I have been able to mow the grass!!! Isn’t this the most satisfying pile? Only one of many, I might add!
Not that anything much else is happening – but then we have only had one day of sun, so I live in hopes. Anyhow, off to Columbia Road flower market tomorrow morning to see what cheap bedding plants are on offer. More anon…
With the exception of the knee high grass (which, as you can see, Tawny Pipit is thoroughly enjoying) the garden has more or less gone on hold… Only our little apple tree has really struggled into flower while a few tentative bluebells are testing the air.
Even the trees are reluctant to show too much leaf with the birch, acacia and ash tree all remaining almost completely leafless. However, bizzarely, but excitingly, a wisteria which already looked old when we arrived over 30 years ago and which has never done anything at all, has suddenly leapt into life and is winding its way through the acer and the pyrancantha. As yet it is only in bud but, just a few days of sun and it will look terrific.
As, hopefully, will the stunning double blue-lilac clematis which is growing up our trellised mirror and while was already in bursting bud when the March heat wave ended – since when it too has gone onhold, not prepared, reasonably enough, to waste its beautiful flowers on a nasty rainy day.
Our lovely old cherry tree is definitely regretting being conned by that warm March weather as it is buffeted by the wind and the rain – but at least it means that the blossom is lasting. In a warmer spring, once it is out, just a couple of hours of strong wind and we have lost the lot and have a pink-carpeted front garden.
However, the somewhat younger pieris which shelters beneath it (and I fear clashes with it…. I know that you are not meant to be able to have clashing colours in nature, but these two definitely do!) is doing fine, thank you very much.
Meanwhile, out in the back garden, Tawny Pipit is working his way down the garden, really enjoying the new grass and not minding the rain one bit!
A lovely spring day… Tawny Pipit (see below) has, as you can see, now ‘gone out to grass’ and is thoroughly enjoying it, while our African heron is also enjoying his moment in the sun. Later in the summer he tends to get lost behind the huge variegated miscanthus grass. The forsythia (about which I was so rude…) is full flower and the acer is just breaking into leaf. A few bluebells even popped their heads out last week, although, with a chill east wind whipping round the garden today, I think they are a bit dubious about going too much further just yet…
Early spring is not a great time in our garden as I have somewhat of an issue with daffodils. Well, actually, its not so much that I have an issue with daffodils, but they have an issue with me… They produce lots of lovely green leaves – but no flowers! I have replanted them, watered them, fed them, talked nicely to them and abused them – but to no avail… So now I just ignore them!
As a result, we miss out on the ‘golden crowd’ and have to wait for the forsythia and the japonica. I know that forsythia is the harbinger of spring– but I always find it a bit vulgar…. I prefer the delicate Japanese japonica flowers. This bush was here before we bought the house (30 odd years ago) and despite being in the most unpromising position (under the pyracantha and beside the barbecue) and being cut back viciously each autumn, it comes up good as new each year…
Well, what a change! Two weeks ago I was posting pictures of the garden covered in snow – and this afternoon I am out photographing the first camellias in the sun… But we all know what they say about March coming in like a lamb – and going out like a lion… So I am not getting the sun hat out yet.
Meanwhile, this rather beautiful white camellia lives in the shade under the cherry tree in the front garden. The pink one of the main page lives in a pot at the bottom end of the garden, behind the summer house – and also in lots of shade.
Winter has hit us just an enthusiatically as it has hit the rest of the country – as you can see. This is my lovely Japanese acer which I just caught before the sun melted the snow – and below is our summer house with icicles dripping from the roof…. Will my ‘living’ saxifrage roof survive?…..
Meanwhile, the poor little birds are struggling…. We appear to have a pair of dunnocks who are regular visitors – you can see one of them fighting through the snow to get to the food here.
I am afraid that the snow has pushed the cats off the front page of the garden blog for now – but they have now acquired a page of their own – although, at the moment, Frodo has it all to himself….. Boris and Mushkin to come… click here.
And this is Tawny Pipit! He is now well established on the balcony – although we feel that we need to ask Laura to make him some food for him to eat on the balcony until he moves down to the garden proper!
Those who wish to follow the progress of the squirrels up the slippery pole to get at the bird food should click here…
For first time visitors to my garden pages, below you will find pictures that I used earlier this year, some as blog headers, each with an approximate date and any information that I thought gardeners might find interesting.
You may also see one or two of our cats who have snuck into the images, sometimes under their own steam but more usually thanks to the ministrations of Photoshop. The ginger is Boris, best known for ensuring that at least 22 hours out of every 24 are spent asleep; the tabby is Mushkin, a busy cat who spends most of the day rushing around ensuring that all human and feline residents are present and correct; the very fine charcoal grey Norwegian forest cat is Frodo, who actually lives in the house whose garden backs onto ours, but likes the food on our side where he can also escape the rather noisy attentions of his owners’ small dog…
10th December. Leaves, leaves, leaves…. These ones are now all gathered up – although I must admit that there are still a goodish pile down at the back of the garden awaiting my rake…
14th November This was early morning on the balcony outside the kitchen that overlooks the garden – as you can see, the overnight rain is still clinging to the leaves and the petals – but not distracting a late autumn wasp – or is he a bee? He seems too slim…
4th November. The long leaved dwarf acer in the front garden that still only stands a metre high although, over the years it has spread to twice or three times its height. Sadly, its colour only last for a couple fo days.
25th October. Yesterday the afternoon sun caught the acer, whose leaves are just turning, and the berry-laden pyracantha branches – how could any bird resist them? Although, pruning gardeners beware! Pyracanthas have the sharpest, toughest, longest thorns that I have ever met. I swear they can penetrate to the bone…
Early October. The zebra grasses at the bottom of the steps down to the garden are just coming to an end. Their pots seems to be far too small for the size of the grasses but I am assured that if I give them more space they will take the garden over!
Late September. Looking down the garden from the balcony outside the kitchen, on which grows this lovely, late flowering rose. Boris and Mushkin looking on.
Early September. I had some really magnificent fuschias in a hanging basket outside the garden house and they are still (mid October) flowering manfully. The wooden cat was a gift a few Christmases ago and guards the garden house.
Late August. The last flowering of my perennial geraniums which were wonderful this summer. Frodo examining my new pond-ette – rather dubiously…
Mid August. This little monkey was a regular visitor to the garden and sunned himself on the bank near the summer house. The cats and foxes seem totally uninterested in each other and although they do not actually come as close as I have them here, the appear to be quite happy to co-exist.
Mid July. My herbaceous ‘patch’ did really well this year and was greatly adorned by my beautiful blue delphiniums (the first time I have managed to grow them without the slugs eating them) and the delightful little red and white salvia, Hotlips.
June. My great success last year was mirroring the wall at the back of the house, covering it with trellis and growing things up it. There were a number of rude comments about Beverley Hills when I suggested the idea but once it was done, everyone had to agree that it adds a whole new dimension to the garden. Boris approves anyhow…
Early June. The pyracantha (which just loves north London clay and is unstoppable) was in full flower and a rambling rose, which I had quite forgotten that I had planted against the wall several years ago, has finally made its way up and pushed through the pyracantha. Boris and Mushkin admire…
Late May. The peonie in my small herbaceous ‘patch’, which has taken several years to get established, was in full bloom as were the lovely bright red poppies. Although I am not sure that Frodo really approves…
Mid May. There is an old may tree half way down the garden on the left (it was here long before us) and every spring it is covered in a profusion of these wonderful dark pink flowers.
Late April. This ceonothus lives down at the bottom of the garden by the old goal posts – up which are meant to be growing two roses, Pink Perpetué and Alberic Barbier although they seem to be taking some time to really get going… This was the only decent flower we got out of Pink Perpetué this year! Mushkin looking superior!
Early March. The garden is just starting to come to life. The laburnum below the may tree is in full flower and the miniature daffodils beneath are just coming to an end. Mushkin snoozes in the early spring sun.
This was the first picture I put up late last year (2010) and shows the garden looking from the back of the house –garden house on the left, what started life as a goal in the middle and a table set on the stump of the crab apple tree which had succumbed to fungal growth and a saw earlier in the summer. Boris make his first appearance.
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