Frost Nip

 Frost Nip is actually the name
of one of my favourite dahlias.

But my title refers to today`s experiences.

First of all, I woke really early and was up by 6 a.m. Secondly I was pretty surprised when Openreach workmen began working on telephone cables outside our house at 6.20. I thought it was a bit early. And they must have been pretty cold because there was a rather heavy frost.

We don`t usually expect frosts at this time of the year, but the car was covered in a layer .... the first clue, unfortunately it was all over the grass and the birdbath had an icy layer as well.

I had reason to be worried. 

We went to the garden. I was just a little bit upset to find all the lovely new dahlia growth blackened.

The sprout net had blown over a couple and they were saved.

This is the lovely My Love that was shooting so well.

A few days ago.

Everything else seemed to be ok but sometimes you don`t find out til later.

Such was the case with these plants at home.

French marigolds and amaranthus.

 

 

Looking very sorry for themselves.

I am hoping the dahlias will recover with new shoots pushing up. I have since wondered whether they need thinning anyway.

I had one tray of statice Pink Pokers to plant.

 

Oh these bakers trays are so useful.

 

Then Steve and I cut some very thick willow poles. Maybe we will use them to construct sunflower support.

It was great to have the dead hedge for all the trimmings.

 

And great to try out our new short but very strong loppers.

 

And here is the flowerbed we did not start weeding today.

 

Dandelions and Dahlias

At the moment its all about planting out and keeping it watered. There wasn`t a great deal of rain throughout April and so far not much in May. Any new planting needs to be watched carefully

At home we have a lot of bedding still to go in but each day the number is going down by about 7or 8 trays. And the 156 dahlia tubers are gradually reducing. Here are the dahlias sprouting madly after being in the ground all winter.

Today I allocated a bare bit of raised bed for my unknown dahlia tubers so its going to be interesting to see what comes up. There are always a few where the labels drop off.

I have put in a tray of helichrysum and the last of the giant sunflowers. I`m just hoping that we find enough stakes when windy season kicks in.

Steve got the shading over the polytunnel and it brought the temperature down by a couple of degrees immediately.

We were glad of our teabreak as it got hotter.

 

I mended a willow fairy base. They are all round the garden this year. In the photo you can see the empty pots so far.

Two willow fairies on the snug.

 

The purple bearded irises are at their peak. I am interested to note that most of these are deep purple when once they were all cream and mauve. I read up about it and it seems that the darker rhizomes tend to take over. One thing is for sure, these will need thinning out after they have flowered.

Meanwhile the tortoises are happily chomping through their daily lettuces. They also love dandelions flowers. I usually find them a few each.
 

Funny to think this used to be the exit from the garden at one time.

 

Honey Delight and Brandy Wine

Steve and I have ended the day feeling very satisfied with ourselves. All of the tomato plants are in the polytunnel.

There are 30 in all.

The varieties are: -

Artisan Yellow, Costaluto, Honey Delight, Rosello, Marmande, San Marzano and Brandy Wine. 

They are staked and protected with very necessary, old net curtains.

I couldn`t bear to pull up the echium in full bloom.

We have had a good tidy up in there as well. It tends to collect junk over the winter. I found a lot more fairy bits and pieces so they are now in the fairy gardens.

Steve began the preparation in the middle bed. That will be for aubergines and peppers later on.

My other jobs included scattering 21 packets of bought and home-saved seeds all round the garden. Poppies, larkspur, cosmos, tobacco plant, foxgloves, californian poppies.

It will be very exciting to see what will come up.

And I had a tray of statice Pink Pokers .... a new dried flower for me. It was lovely to plant in damp soil after some rain recently.

The aquilegia grow like weeds at the garden and this is their peak time. 

Anne has created this wonderful dinosaur garden with her grandchildren. It was a lovely surprise. Its in an old water trough. Visitors are going to love it.

Things are coming together very well and the rain, albeit scant, was most welcome.

 

 

Sunflowers, Sprouts and Spurge

The weather has been glorious but we are beginning to be in great need of rain. It is forecast for tonight so fingers crossed.

The poor pond is very low indeed and needs a top-up.
 

Someone has recently said, about UK weather .... its a strange time, scraping ice from windscreens in the morning, suntan lotion on in the day then heating on in the evening. 

This morning, very early there was an eerie mist rolling across our field. But it soon got burnt off. 

Today was sunflower day. I managed to get 28 in at the garden.

Giant single

Henry Wilde

Orange Sun

You would think the planting of sunflowers would be easy but its not that straightforward. Each one is protected by a plastic bottle cloche, held in place by 2 canes. it is tied in once, slug pelleted and watered. I`m hoping they don`t bake in their mini-greenhouse.

That took most of the morning. There will be more to go in next time if I can find space.

Steve got the leeks in. And the sprouts are well away in their netted cage.

We have got 20 tomato plants waiting at home but the polytunnel is not ready and far too hot today to work in there, preparing.

The cuckoo was calling all around the farm. I had to sit in the shade near the guinea pigs for my teabreak. They are now enjoying the free run of the little orchard.

The ravaged apple tree is looking good. We thought we had lost it when rabbits chewed round the base. But it survived.

The foliage on the buddliea looks healthy. I might keep it that way by spraying with Neem oil, to prevent the problems we had last year.
 I have succesfully rooted a cutting from the beautiful buddliea by the snug. Another plant we thought we had lost ..... but it bounced back.

We lifted more carpet, used to cover over-wintering dahlias. This is what we found. I hope the growth straightens up. It is the very vigorous My Love dahlia. I would use some for cuttings if it wasn`t for the fact that I already have a crate full of tubers from this particular dahlia. A toad was hiding there too.

 

The big raised bed promises to be quite a sight, with feverfew and foxgloves in abundance. All self sown.

And the spurge continues to delight. Four months of amazing acid green flowers.

 

And finally the bean posts are in. Funny to think what this bed will look like in just a few weeks.

 

Cuckoos and Cherry Snow

So very happy to hear our first cuckoo, over towards the Owl Yurt. What a herald of true spring.

Though you would never believe how cold it was today ... four layers and a scarf and a teabreak inside the polytunnel. 

We discovered the five baby robins had fledged. We could hear them with their pipping call to be fed, all around, as we drank our welcome cuppa.

My main task of the morning was to get the first bedding in. It is not quite as straight forward as one would imagine. The chosen space has to be weeded, unfortunately for me riddled with ground elder which has to be teased out. Every tiny piece left will produce a new plant. 

The soil has to be broken down. The bed edges have to be cut and tidied. And only then can you plant. Cornflowers and statice.

The old bread basket is perfect protection.

Otherwise its back to the doctored water bottles which are so useful, held in place by two sticks.

The now neat edge makes such a difference.
Finally a good watering and slug pellets.

The plants look a bit scrappy but they will soon perk up as long as all the safe-guarding holds out. 

Steve planted the last potatoes.

The onions are doing well.

Elsewhere around the garden, the cherry blossom was dropping like huge snowflakes. The pond was covered and even the snug had a scattering inside.

My Mum`s lilac is in flower. All of us have a lilac our gardens from her original tree.
 

The pink and mauve theme is carried on with comfrey and self-seeded aquilegia.

 

My final job was to spruce up the sedum troughs using tiny bits and pieces of plants. I might need some more.

Meanwhile in the gnome garden, a foxglove is aiming to swamp everyone and everything but I cannot bring myself to dig it out.

 

Baby Wrens and Toads

 The weather has been wonderful for the second part of the Easter weekend. But at night the temperatures have plummeted. I have been covering up all my seedlings every night using a light fleece. We have held back on planting out potatoes and sweetpeas.

The canes are up and ready.

Mabel will be the guardian of the sweetpea  row this year.

They are ready at home, but I am not taking any chances with my precious plants.

 

Yesterday I completed the shrub bed thank goodness .... not my favourite bed to tidy up, crawling under shrubs and being stabbed by phormiums. 

 

Steve discovered that the eggs had hatched .... the wrens built their nest in a compost sack in the polytunnel. He disturbed it accidently. We hoped they wouldn`t abandon it. They didn`t.

The babies are minute. 

 

I noticed the protective carpet over the dahlias was lifting. I decided to investigate. This is what I found. Has it been there all winter?

 

Alongside, the dahlias were shooting wildly. At home I have potted on a lot of tubers ready for a head start. They are still in the greenhouse.

 

The first yurters were enjoying the farm and garden in the sunshine. I also heard a guitar strumming gently as I worked.

 

Tim and Anne were busy preparing for a change-over, trundling by on the workmax.

 

At home I spent some time potting on the tomatoes. They are colour coded for varieties. Unfortunately I lost one of the naming labels but should be able to deduce which one it is.

 

And I finished this puppy dog which looks like it is weathering a storm.

 

Incidently the craft stall is up and running in the Wool Barn.

 

Hope you all had a lovely Easter.