April garden update

It may not look as though we are making much progress – still builders very much in evidence – but I promise you that we are…

The paving is now all laid around the house (still working on the area in front of the garage) and I have even managed to plant some wheelie bin concealing plants.

The heuchera and pittisporum have been moved from elsewhere in the garden and, right now, the little pittisporums (Irene Patterson) are not happy about being uprooted just as they were shooting all their new leaves. I did apologise and gave them lots of nice soil and manure and water and I think they will probably be OK but they are still a bit droopy. Not so the two choisia behind them. One quite large one I had dug out of  my old garden four years ago and shoved in a large pot, the other was really small (top left above) and had been squeezed in a much too small pot, ignored, left to dry out and generally maltreated. Both were very sad and sorry for themselves, but….  Literally within days of being planted out, they had both got so excited to have root space, nice soil and water that they were shooting fresh shiny little green shoots – as you can see!

Round in the back garden the cotinus are just coming into leaf and the cardoon has gone completely bonkers.

This picture was taken when we had those gales a few days ago and the cardoon really does look quite ghostly and other worldy waving its huge grey leaves around.

Following a tip I heard on Gardeners’ Question Time I cut the bottoms off the four pots that house my fuscias. They are permanent residents in this spot as there is a random bit of iron railing which sticks up a couple of inches out of the ground (not enough to notice but quite enough to trip you up) and grouping the fuscias round it neutralises it. Cutting the bottom off the pots allows the roots to grow down into the ground saving quite a lot of watering and avoiding them getting pot bound. Too early to know whether this is going to make them happier fuscias been they seem pretty OK for now.

Over on the other side of the garden by the holly tree, the wild garlic has certainly established itself and is holding its own against the Japanese anenomes. I know it will spread but there is lots more under the bramble forest in the garage garden so I am hoping to transplant some more when it has finished flowering – and I have hacked my way through the brambles.

On the other side of the holly tree stretching along the fence to the back of the garden I had planted FAR too many jasmines, solanums, clematis montana and even a rose. It was the very first bit of planting I was able to do in the garden and I was so desperate to get things in that I put far too much. As a result it was bedlam there by last autumn – but I fear we might have been somewhat over vicious in our attempts to bring it under control as it now looks very pathetic. Maybe next time a little more restraint with the secateurs.

However, in the big bed at the feet of the climbers the geums, the roses, the acers are all doing well while the heucheras –  black, copper coloured, lime green and red, are, as always, glowing.

And finally, the apple tree has been in full flower although those winds that were tossing the cardoon leaves also blew off a lot of petals. I am interested to see what happens with apples this summer. We had a massive crop the year before last and only a handful last year but my understanding is that many apples trees (this is a  Bramley) only fruit well every second year.

So much for the garden but I could not resist adding a couple of images from Kenwood and the heath.

The first is of young chestnuts leaves. I love them at this stage as they have just forced their way out of those huge shiny buds and they always look quite exhausted – seriously droopy as though the effort of breaking out has been all too much for them. In a few days they will have recovered their energy and will have perked up.

The second is of the handkerchief tree and the rhodedendrons in Kenwood. For more on the handkerchief tree (Davidia involucrata) see my post back in 2022 but here are its handkerchiefs nestling in with the rhodies on the lawn beside Kenwood House.