Spring colour

I have taken my camera out of the potting shed for a moment to show you the rest of the garden.

It’s very, very colourful right now.

Starting in the east garden I’m delighted to see the camassias up and flowering. They need damp soil. Something I fail to provide. But this spot right on the bank of the Dry Garden actually has an underground spring.

Perfect for these bulbs which emerge just after the tulips and daffodils have decided it’s time to fade.

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I’m eking out the last of the darker tulips from the raised beds for bouquets. But I think today is the last bunch I can cut. I’ll need a week to wait for the alliums to burst out of the soil. They are up. But huddling with this cool and I’m excited to say, damp weather.

A trip to the rain gauge is one filled with hope. Even if we only had 8mm yesterday, it felt marvellous.

There are quince blossoms galore on all the trees on the bank above the Dry Garden. And as they only fruit every second year, this is the one which makes you pleased they missed the hard frost from earlier this month.

I should stand back and give you the whole marvellous scene, but I would either fall over onto a precious plant, or else plummet down the steep slope of the bank.

The not-so thrilling but always dependable purple irises are always the first to flower. And fade. But it’s fun to see them pumping out the colour all through the barn garden on my way to the potting shed.

A visual cleansing moment from all the euphorbia you have to confront.

If you have one euphorbia, then be prepared to have hundreds. They were great for this garden when I was starting out. Because there was no garden. I love a good self-seeder. But I am definitely getting more disciplined about yanking out the emerging plants.

Proof positive I’m not very diligent.

But this is a dry as dust bank underneath a huge chestnut tree. Nothing thrives expect for self seeded euphorbia x wulfennii and the honesty (that’s the purple). Oh and a santolina Primrose Gem which is in the wrong place, but I can never remember to shift it every winter.

And in case you tire of purple at the front of the house – the wisteria is doing its mad perfumed thing.

I actually snapped this shot as a reminder to pull off the Virginia creeper that is about to engulf my office window. And annual joy.

And that was enough distraction in the real garden. The work is in the potting shed and it is quite the burgeoning forest of crops.

I leave you with a sneak preview.