Herbie...

So much has happened since last month’s blog, its tricky to know where to start. Firstly, the gardens have come alive with all the spring blossom and the daffodils are beginning to look amazing. March has been beautifully sunny, and it has almost been too hot to work in some areas of the gardens.

The blossom seems to be going over so fast but then the purple tinted leaves of the malus take over and give a fresh hue to the wooded areas. I was waiting for one of our earliest magnolia to come into flower with the hope of taking some really good pictures this year. Unfortunately, as often happens, just as the flowers were beginning to open, a sharp frost clipped the petals. However, the other magnolias that were in tight bud at the time are fine and are now beginning to open.

We opened on wed 23rd March and are now in full flow. The Tea Rooms are now under new management and are really worth a visit. The new proprietors are trying to make sure that they only use local produce, and that includes veg and fruit from the Kitchen Gardens.... which makes for very low ‘food miles’. They are offering hot and cold meals, afternoon tea on proper china, and they even have an alcohol licence...

Across the winter I have had a couple of pheasant following me round the gardens. We named them Herbie (see pic) and Harry Lightening. So don’t be suprised if you suddenly find a pheasant coming out of the woods and rushing towards you... they won’t attack, they are only after a little bit of grain.

The work on the fountain in the Millennium Garden is finished and I had the task last week of refilling it. When tested however it was noticed that the fountain flowed unevenly over the two top levels. This meant that someone had to come in with a stone grinder and gently shave a little off the rims to make them level for the water to flow down evenly. This also meant that my newly filled, and beautifully clean fountain became white and cloudy with all the stone dust, necessitating another draining, cleaning and refilling . A gardeners work is never done.

April Tasks

Construct runner bean wigwams or other supports and sow bean seeds, beetroot, radish, spinach, carrots, winter brassicas and peas.
plant those early potatoes as soon as the weather allows
Start to sow annual bedding and climbers. We sow ours into 1/2 seed trays and put them in a mist unit but your pots or trays would do equally well tucked into a closed, clear plastic bag until they germinate.
Trim back shrubs that have flowered over the late winter, eg jasminum nudiflorum, removing the flowered shoots to keep the shrub within its boundaries.
prune back hardy fuchsias to 2 or 3 buds from their base.
keep hoeing when the weather is warm and breezy to remove small weeds.
If you removed your pond pump last autumn, now is the time to check it over and replace it for the summer.
Begin to remove winter protection as the weather warms up.
Feed roses and shrubs with a general fertiliser such as Growmore or a specialised rose feed.
Feed camellias and rhododendron if looking a bit yellow. They require a special sequestered iron food.
Plants that are growing in pots would also benefit from a suitable feed.