If this is April, I must be in gardening paradise

WHAT’S your favourite sort of blossom?

Is it a sugar-pink cherry or the blush-white flower of the apple tree? Perhaps you’ve fallen for the charms of the snowy mespilus or the frothy delights of our native blackthorn?

I love them all, but if I was forced to choose just one, it would have to be plum blossom.

For a couple of weeks now the Victoria plum trees in my garden have formed a lacy, white parasol over the tulips that grow beneath them and I’m holding my breath for the moment the first petal starts to fall, triggering a blizzard of confetti.

Last year there wasn’t much blossom, but then the trees were young and still building up their strength.

This year they are into their stride, so unless the flowers get nipped by frost, we can look forward to plum jam this autumn.

Meanwhile, the starlings have returned, perching on the top of the fence and chattering like a bunch of over-excited children while great skeins of pink-footed geese have been flying over the garden on the start of their long journey home to Greenland.

Spring is a busy time and not just for the birds, so it isn’t always possible to get everything done as promptly as you would like.

While I was potting up dozens of perennials, grown from seed last year, the grass sprouted a couple of inches and a row of hearty-looking docken leaves sprouted along the length of the fence.

All of the early daffodils now need to be dead-headed before they start to set seed and weeds are popping up between all of the paving slabs.

I still have to feed and mulch the borders and I’m up to my eyes in potting compost and

seeds.

And if I don’t patrol the boundaries with my secateurs, brambles will soon be scaling the fence, intent on reclaiming this patch as their own.

Yet none of this feels like a chore.

How could it be when the air is scented by skimmias and fat bees bumble around the flowers? Add in a burst of spring sunshine and an April day in the garden is the closest thing you can get to Paradise.

Last week I came home from the garden centre with a boot load of pulmonarias and trilliums and before any of the pressing jobs gets tackled, my first task is to find homes for these in the border that runs down the shady side of the house.

This area is already bright with primulas and I’m adding the newcomers for their beautiful foliage as much as for their gorgeous flowers.

Foliage is one of the delights of spring and as well as being enthralled by the pale and silvery leaves of the whitebeams and the vibrancy of the hawthorn.

I’m also charmed by a tulip called ‘Pretty Princess’. This year I’ve grown it for the first time and its unusual variegated foliage is as lovely as its pink flowers.