Welcome to May! Writing this well past half way through the month is an indicator of how much I have been doing in and out of the gardens! Looking back on March’s tour, plants have come on a huge amount. And so have the beds and borders.
This is what I said about the beds then - “Dried grasses and foliage dropped like dresses dropped by divas at the end of their performance. Flopped all over the soils. There is little left now to discern the profiles of the border last summer at their highest heights.” (And footnoted why it is important to take pictures throughout the year. Because we forget.)
Look at the border now!
I am astounded how much growth there is; especially considering such little rain, and the amount of planting that I took out, dividing and thinning plants out.
The clear up of this bed was only in late April. April 25th to be precise. I left last year’s growth on to protect plants from frosts and to allow insects to stay snuggly. There is plenty of cover again now.
The tunnel is fizzing with plants and insects. Everything is doing really well, which is a lot better than the rancunculus did after Master Muntjac got in and ate them all. When the planted orlaya and larkspur are done, I will follow on with tomatoes, waiting patiently on the (turned off) heat bench.
There are also lots of poppies in the tunnel. Usually I grow gorgeous grey, pinks and this year, I hoped, colibri poppies. Which so far, look like I have failed to germinate any. Ah well.
In what was called the ‘hazel border’ on account of all the hazel poles installed as a fence, we replaced with cheap fence panels (yuck) and painted black as a back drop for the different climbers all planted at it’s base. This should keep the muntjac out now!
These parts of the garden are so dull to me. However, they were big jobs that I’d been waiting all winter to do. The door doesn’t look like will fall off any more! I am hoping the fence will look great behind the dahlias as they flower too.
I have a huge new planting area too, that I keep mentioning but it took me a long time to get the shape and preparation done.
I have been hardening off plants especially for these newly developed beds.
That’s right. I called it!
Plants have definitely been caught by the frost, but look more closely at these plants -
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