greenbenchramblings

March, according to the Met Office is the first day of spring but as gardeners we know it isn’t. Or is this year going to be the year when early March does feel like spring? Many plants seem to think spring has definitely arrived as we have strong fresh growth on many perennials and buds fattening on trees and shrubs.

These photos illustrate haw many different colours fresh growth comes in.

Over onto the next page I summarised some of the garden jobs we worked on.

“The first few days of March were bright and mild so we spent them in the garden. Our new shed is close to being finished – it has a door! I hand weeded the gravel bed alongside the conservatory as Jude tackled our Beth Chatto Garden. Ian, our garden helper, planted three new euphorbias while Jude made the new water butt area level.”

The next page in my journal featured purely hellebores and I noted that, “Hellebores are still going strong with some only just with buds fattening up preparing to flower. Here is a small selection.”

From hellebores we move onto coloured stems and the bark of trees. I wrote, “Coloured stems and bark of trees and shrubs are there to be appreciated early in the month prior top coppicing and pollarding before the month is over.”

“The second half of March means fresh growth. Plants bursting into growth, buds opening revealing so many shades of green from chartreuse to almost black. Flower buds open alongside.” Below are photos to illustrate this huge variety of colour in fresh foliage.

Instead of opening leaf buds on the next page I look at opening flower buds on climbers, shrubs and perennials. I noted that, “These opening flower buds offer shades of pink, yellow, orange, white and purples.

We have done so much in the garden this month that I added a second page relating to getting more tasks done. I wrote, “Of course throughout March we carry on gardening whenever the weather allows. But we got so frustrated with rainy days that we went out and just got wet – sometimes very wet!

A really colourful page comes up next with the array of colours coming from our tulips. “Towards the end of March tulips became a definite star of the garden even though they are more likely to be flowering in April.”

Below is a selection of just ten of our large collection of tulips. We plant more each autumn to make up for the inevitable losses.

So that gives us a very colourful end to my March journal, just like a jar of old fashioned sweets.

It is so hard to predict what our April garden will give us – it is already a confusing year.

February is never a month which is very predictable, giving us cold blue sky days starting with sharp frosts or often a short heatwave. This year on the first day of the new month I wrote, “February 1st. We woke to a dry morning, mostly overcast but with increasing patches of pale wintry blue. A robin joined us in the kitchen, probably the first of many visits to come. There is so much colour throughout the garden from winter flowering shrubs to the tiny spring bulbs. So many so-called spring bulbs actually flower in winter! Our colours come also from fungi, coloured stems and hellebores.”

I shared eight photos of sources of colour from around the garden.

Over the page we move on to consider the gardening tasks we still need to get done. I noted that, “Still plenty of gardening tasks to get done. We needed to get up an acer that had died. Ian, our garden help, did this for us and this was a long, hard job, especially when it came to getting up the very bottom of the stump and the roots. We then replaced it with a low-growing acer together with a small azalea. We then gave the Spring Garden a “spring clean”.

The problem we have currently when looking after the Spring Garden is the fact that the property next door is currently vacant and has been for months. There is a terrible mess behind our fence, mostly self seeded shrubs, ivies and brambles. We have to try to keep this area under control.”

Turning to the next page we shared three photos taken looking into three different borders.

“Creeping patch of cyclamen coum.“

“Golden crocus glowing beneath deciduous trees.”

“A row of Carex edge the border.”

The next page shows one of my sketches, illustrating hips of Rosa “Blush Noisette”.

Following on from my sketch I moved on to a look at February flowers. I wrote, “February Flowers. In the February gloom all colour counts. There may be fewer flowers around, but this makes each one special. Many winter flowers are scented in order to add another layer of attraction ,which brings in early pollinators mostly bees to start with.”

The next consideration was to look at more gardening tasks needing to be completed this month. I noted that, “The gardening tasks continue to be completed despite the constant rain. We planted an acer with a small azalea into a large grey pot by our front seat under the beneath the ivy clad arch. We have replaced a bench beneath the blackberry archway with a smart new one. I have been taking succulent cuttings, cleaning some succulent leaves and potting on divisions of perennials. Jude worked along the drive-side borders and curb edges.”

There is no better way to end my February Journal report than to share photographs of us working away in our garden.