Feathered concerto is music to my ears

BIRDSONG is the soundtrack to May and sometimes when I’m working outdoors I just have to stop what I’m doing and listen to it.

Recently I discovered a website that carries recordings of more than 250 British birds, so I’ve been attempting to pick out the soloists from among the concerto of tweets and trills that starts at daybreak and continues for most of the day.

Then a few days ago I found a blackbird’s egg under the hedge. The egg was in perfect condition and clearly hadn’t rolled very far, so there had to be a nest somewhere in the garden. I couldn’t find it so it may be tucked away in some sheltered corner where hopefully the rest of the clutch has remained undisturbed.

One of the delights of late spring is watching adult birds feed the little ones that hop about the lawn behind them and there are many comedy moments when the young starlings start to test their take-off and landing technique from the fence.

Not all of them are natural fliers. But birds aren’t just entertaining of course, they are helpful too. I’ve stopped tackling the greenfly that inevitably appear on the euphorbias and now I just leave the sparrows to do the job.

They don’t obliterate the pests, but do enough to keep the problem at bay.

It’s that balance that’s the key to a healthy garden as without the insects, much of the bird life that we enjoy would disappear as well.

Meanwhile, it’s the tulips that are disappearing. This year’s season has almost finished and it has been glorious. I’ve now deadheaded most of my tulips and have fed the foliage to help build up bulbs for next year’s display. I grow most of mine in deep plastic containers that fit

inside terracotta pots and I just lift these out when it is time to replace them with summer colour.

I plan on using lots of trailing verbenas and pelargoniums in shades of hot pink and fuchsia and I’m trying to get my hands on some Calendula ‘Indian Prince’ to grow with them.

I’m growing some from seed but I’d like to get hold of some more established plants to get things off to a good start. The combination of pink and orange isn’t subtle, but it’s got a sort of lively Bollywood charm that I find stimulating when packed into pots.

If you are striving for something more tasteful, then restricting your colours to white and green is guaranteed to produce classy results, but whatever colour combinations you choose, don’t stop at bedding plants.

I like to mix annuals and perennials in my pots and I cram in plenty of foliage plants too. Leaves add a bit of heft and prevent clashing colours from looking like an explosion in a sweetie shop.

Hostas and heucheras also make great container plants for shady corners, where their variegated and colourful leaves makes up for a lack of flowers.