Where is the rain?

April has been a tough month, with the lack of rain meaning that watering has become a bit of an obsession with me. Even throughout the Easter Bank Holidays, and Royal Wedding and Mayday celebrations I have been in the gardens watering. I have also started to become obsessive about checking the weather forecast in the vain hope of some rain. The lake and horse pool are so low I am rather worried.

Like many people I expect, I allowed the local TV signal to change to digital without changing my TV or getting a digibox. Of course we lost all our channels so resorted to listening to the Royal Wedding on the radio in the entry hut with Janet, the gate girl on duty on Friday. It was actually very moving. We strung a line of red, white and blue flags across the hut and felt very patriotic. I think a grand total of 19 visited the gardens on Friday; we really are a nation proud of our heritage, pagentry and the Royal Family.

Miss Berkeley had enormous pleasure decorating the main entry gates (see pic) for the Royal Wedding. She also decorated the tea room gardens and the white bridge over the road with the help of Joan from one of the flats. She was a little concerned about what Mr Berkeley would say but it was all vey much appreciated by the visitors.

Next week we are pleased to have the help of a student gardener from Slovenia. She is with us for 2 weeks to learn all aspects of gardening in a large country estate. I hope that she is able to take some old traditional skills back with her when she returns home.

The kitchen garden display is beginning to take shape, although the lack of rain has caused a bit of havoc with the root crops, and we haven’t yet planted out all that I would have liked to. The paeonies and lilies however seem to be thriving. The low rainfall has meant that fungal infections that often destroy the flowers in wetter seasons have been kept at bay. We are expecting a fantastic display.

See you soon

Kate

May Tasks

Try to keep ontop of the hoeing and weeding
Feed roses and shrubs with a general fertiliser; rhododendrons and camelias would benefit from an ericaceous feed.
Plant up hanging baskets, but keep them protected in the greenhouse or frost free conservatory and don’t forget to include some slow release fertiliser.
Cut the grass whenever conditions allow.
Plants that are growing in pots would benefit from a feed
If you removed your pond pump last autumn, now is the time to check it over and replace it for the summer.
Trim back shrubs that have flowered over the late winter, eg jasminum nudiflorum, removing the flowered shoots to keep the shrub within its boundaries.
Clean patio slabs and stonework to remove alge etc.
Trim back spreading alpines such as aubrietia and arabis after flowering.
It looks like we may be in for a dry summer so a water butt or other water collection system connected to the guttering is a good idea.