Picture round up

I’ve never tried this before. For speed’s sake, here are a gallery of photos from today’s visit around the garden. Should be self explanatory: verdant and ripe everywhere.

Nah, doesn’t work without commentary. Everything just looks green and baffling. Here are the first strawberries of the year. Bumper crop this year in the new look bed.

And these two shots (further down the post, sorry I can’t align things properly) ought to prove that my early pruning didn’t kill off the grape vines, nor the mulberry tree in the courtyard. You have to shade your eyes from the glare of all that gravel. This will become a gravel garden one day, promise. With plants.

But speaking of plants: here is the success story of early spring. The lupins are doing what they are destined to do. Shoot up, flower and set seed. Garish colour without any other planting scheme around them. But this is definitely the first year attempt. Actually you can’t see but there are lilies and gladiolis in there somewhere too. Just clothed in lupinness at the moment. Hopefully they will get their chance to shine later in the year. Or season.

This is the potato forest bursting out of the potager:

And don’t you just love these small tomatoes staked to monster supports? They will grow. And get leafy and difficult and throw out side shoots when your back is turned. And maybe even produce toms.

But alack, one must finish on a sad note. This wildflower meadow is a damp squib. Not damp enough perhaps for a meadow mix developed in northern Britain. I remain optimistic but it may be a forlorn hope.