The garden’s waking up slowly...
Iona Chisholm A developing family garden and allotment in Staffordshire, with yearround interest.
The garden feels full of promise. The flower buds on the chaenomeles ‘Texas Scarlet’ are opening to adorn its bare branches with red jewels, bulbs are bursting and the mellow yellow of emerging daffodils brightens in sunshine. Vivid dogwood stems are delightful.
The nodding flower heads of lime green Helleborus argutifolius, mottled purple ‘Grape Galaxy’ and white-pink ‘Shooting Star’ are striking,
despite the weather conditions. With plants and animals slowly waking up, the garden is poised to burst into life again. I shall be planting out the autumn-sown sweet peas ‘Heirloom mixed’ and ‘Fragrantissima’ on a new wigwam and looking forward to their strong colours and intoxicating perfume. Seedlings are progressing nicely in the greenhouse, ready for summer colour.
The allotment is almost ready for the year. Time spent
now makes such a difference to productivity. I’ve been out in all weathers for half an hour most days to prune, weed, dig, build and prepare, working slowly across the plot. I was delighted to discover free manure by the allotment entrance, thanks to a neighbouring horse, but not so pleased by my overloaded wheelbarrow’s flat tyre! But I struggled on and spread a thin layer on most beds. I spread allotment compost on the carrot and parsnip beds, as you should not manure those areas. This year’s carrot varieties are ‘Red Samurai’, ‘Oxheart’ and ‘Purple Sun’ F1, which I’ll be sowing shortly now the soil’s finally warming up! I’ve planted red onions under net tunnels and the ‘Pentland Javelin’ potatoes are chitting. I’m still undecided whether to plant them under black polythene, as recommended by Geoff Hamilton, or the usual trenches. With the arrival of lighter evenings and after all the cold weather, I’m ready to welcome in this gorgeous time of year with plenty of time in the garden, celebrating its awakening.