Robin moves in as open Day looms....
Its starting to feel like spring in the garden now. A couple of days of sunshine and gardeners across the land begin to perk up and their fingers start to each. Here at Duck Pools i never really stop gardening. It irritates me a little when people say they've put the garden 'to bed' for the winter. They say goodbye to it like they're not going to see it for three months or more unless its through a window from the house! Dont get me wrong, i don't encourage working out there when its torrential rain or blowing a gale but, for those lucky enough to have a greenhouse, there is plenty of pottering to be done. Over the winter i've been making slight adjustments to the garden ready for our open days this year. I've also been doing alot of work in the alpine house, repotting most things especially the various Lewisias. Last week we took a trip to the AGS Loughborough alpine show and acquired lots of lovely new plants, notably Saxifragas but also a good specimen of Magnolia laevifolia 'Gail's Favourite' and a Daphne 'Eternal Fragrance' both purchased from Keith Wiley at Wildside Nursery. All the alpines are in clay pots and i use plunge beds filled with sharp sand where the pots are sunk upto the rim to aid drainage and protect the roots from getting too hot in summer or too cold in winter. Over winter i've just kept the sand in the plunge barely damp but now spring is coming i've imitated the natural snowmelt they would enconter around about this time of year and thoroughly soaked the sand. All of the alpines which are either in flower or showing bud; i've given a weak potash feed.
Otherwise in the garden i've been having a tidy up, sweeping the patio ready to get it jet washed. Beside the hidden bothy there was an area which i felt was being wasted as storage so thats been cleared. This has freed up more space for more plants! First to go in is Lonicera japonica 'Dart's World'. An extremely hardy evergreen honeysuckle with exceptional scent. The plan is to train it up the bothy to mingle in with the Wisteria.
The plethora of bulbs which were planted back in the autumn are surging upwards in pots and borders. A sure sign that spring is coming. As is the return of our feathered friends. Already we have robins nesting amongst the Jasmine 'Clotted Cream' who are frantically feeding their three young all day long. Also the blue tits are, again, nesting in the silver birch nest box which is situated opposite the kitchen window and allows for regular sightings of mum and dad flying back and forth.
Our first ever spring iopen day is looming and is only just over five weeks away. I'm not sure how it's going to go as the garden has only ever opened in the summer. However, as with anything, i'm throwing myself into whole-heartedly and hope it all goes well. There's planting, weeding, top dressing and cakes to bake... it'll be fine!
