I’m spending Easter Sunday during the lockdown watching a rerun of the Cricket World Cup from last year, very strange times indeed. It has obviously been a unusual year so far with the coronavirus affecting everything. I had purchased tickets for the RHS shows at Chelsea and Chatsworth, but both have been cancelled. I have a holiday booked for Singapore in July, which hasn’t as yet been cancelled, to see the garden festival and I picked a tour which meant that I would be back home in time for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics!
The weather has also been very strange this year. We had a dry start in January and I was able to get a lot done in the garden which was just as well as February was a complete write off due to the rain. Luckily I didn’t have any flooding but the ground was saturated, my feet squelched whenever I walked on the lawn. The weather in March was OK but the ground was still too wet to be able to do anything worthwhile, and April has been extremely dry with no sign of April showers. The soil in places, especially on the scree bed, is already cracking and too dry to be able to weed easily, and I’ve been gardening in shorts and a T-shirt. I’ve thought for a long time now that we have our best weather in April.
However, plants and wildlife carry on as usual. The birds are busy collecting nesting material from around the garden, two male pheasants have been fighting, and the frogs in my pond haven’t worked out what social distancing is. I’ve had a visit from a mistle thrush for the first time and it has been paying particular attention to the pond – I’m guessing it is interested in the snails in the pond.
Some of the daffodils have finished but others are still looking great, although not really enjoying the hot weather. Woodland plants such as erythronium (dog-toothed violets), epimediums, hellebores and primulas are looking good. The primulas as seeding themselves all over and a cowslip has decided to grow in my lawn. The yellow flowers of ranunculus brazen hussy are loving the sun. Flowers on the magnolia and the dwarf rhododendrons and azaleas are just starting to appear, and the leaves on the acers beginning to unfurl. Tulips are beginning to flower, peonies are in bud, euphorbias are looking great and begonias are starting to flower. Viburnum burkwoodii is beginning to flower and the smell almost knocks you out as you wander past. I have one planted next to an amelanchier lamarckii and these two shrubs are stunning at this time of year, as well as screening the shed and compost heaps. I have three exochorda macrantha the bride within the garden and the anemone coronaria has been in flower since New Year’s Day.
The vegetable patch is showing promise. The first asparagus shoots have appeared, there is lots of blossom on the dwarf pear and cherry tree, I’ve planted out the first of the broad beans and peas, the raspberries are showing signs of life, and the onions, garlic and elephant garlic are looking good after a relatively mild winter.
