My gardening diary
MONDAY Despite ge ing off to a slow start, our tulips have been good. We didn’t have as many as usual so the time has come to recognise they’re past their best, take them out of their pots and allow the stems and leaves to die down to make new bulbs. They’ll be smaller but we can line them out next autumn for cut flowers.
TUESDAY The Banksian rose, Rosa banksiae ‘Lutea’, on the front of the co age is at the height of its flowering. I wrote last year about training it to fit a long, vertical rectangle and it seems to have worked reasonably well.
WEDNESDAY Wild garlic, ramsons, is the bane of many gardeners’ lives. We have it here at Glebe Co age and it’s presently doing its thing. Here, it’s contained between the edge of the garden and the tiny stream that runs through. Nowadays it’s an item on many a fashionable menu.
THURSDAY Runner beans planted one to an individual pot have made good growth but before they’re planted out I want to stake them and let them grow to about a foot. By then the bo om of the stem should be strong and less susceptible to slug a ack.
FRIDAY We’re overhauling our primulas, many of which have been decimated by vine weevils. Those in the ground remain unscathed but many of the Barnhaven strains we grew from seed last year have been infested. The first evidence was when blackbirds started pulling out plants to get at the fat, white grubs below.
SATURDAY It’s quite a late year but already some perennials have made strong new shoots that can be purloined for basal cu ings. Favourites include phlox, sedum, lamiums and campanulas.
SUNDAY Malvern Spring Festival is brilliant. The surrounding countryside is at the height of its glory with apple trees at their frothiest and the glorious Malvern Hills are washed blue and sparkling green with bluebells and new beech leaves. The show itself is fresh and new, anticipating the gardening year!