Monday 12 April 2010

Gardening No 8


Gardening No 8

Today has been warm and sunny with virtually no wind and a clear blue sky;

It’s so very nice to be out in the garden.

Most of the daffodils are in bloom with lots of buds still waiting to flower.

The containers of pink bedding plants I bought a couple of weeks ago are all looking good

 and the primula is popping up every where.

Several of the plants I thought I had lost are still alive. I was convinced the lovage would never grow again but here is its distinctive feathery leaf, bright apple green on a red stalk.

 This pot of chocolate mint looked like a pot of frozen dead earth a month or so ago

 and now it’s bursting into life again, spreading its gorgeous scent all over the garden.

The rhubarb which I was sure I would never see again has shot up and already has two new deeply veined leaves both bigger than my hand.

My privet hedge has not fared so well. I don’t know why but I had to spend a couple of hours pulling out lots of dead wood. I lost about 4 privet bushes, they were dead down to their roots and the whole bush lifted out of the ground.

I am left with a hedge full of holes which offers virtually no privacy and a huge pile of dead wood and rubbish left by passers by which will take me a while to dispose of. 

I guess I’ll have to live with the holes for most of this growing season but in place of the dead privet I’ve planted a variety of native hedgerow bushes. I think I’ve planted Holly, Dog Rose, Dog Wood, Rowan, Silver Birch and even Hawthorn. I’m hoping that in a couple of years the native hedgerow takes over from the privet which will maybe even attract nesting birds.

7 comments:

  1. life cycles and the seasons....and all things considered, it all looks great to me, Loretta. i am positively MAD for those primula! ; D

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  2. Nothing will kill chocolate mint. I love your plants; my daffodils are up as well, they were when we came home. The late blooming ones are up now.

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  3. Sp pretty -sure puts you in that Spring mood.

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  4. I did some trimming and found nests in what I cut. I have a topiary shaped like a bird and just let the tail go wild, but it needed trimmed. I got a good laugh at finding bird nests in a bird's tail.

    Lovely photos, it looks like your garden is on about the same schedule as here.

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  5. I think you have had a better start at spring then we've had here in the centre of Spain although flowers are finally coming out.We had a beautiful day on Sunday and today bad weather again. Can't wait to see your garden as it advances. Too bad about the hedge that you lost because it did protect your privacy.

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  6. yes.............its a shame because now I have no privacy and the new shrubs will take one or two seasons to grow. I'm beginning to think it was just a very old hedge. Much of it turned out to be rotten at the base and just lift out of the ground. I also think my radical hedge trim last year exposed a whole lot of dead wood that was previously hidden by new growth. I don't think privet is native to this country which is why i'm replacing it with native hedgerow plants. I'm hoping they will be hardier and encourage the native wildlife into the garden.

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  7. my tulips are close to blooming

    :)

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