Forget me nots

This blogging is a bit time consuming and at this time of the year whenever the weather is nice and there’s not too much work indoors I’m out in the garden. However an update, last week we had terrible gales, yet again I didn’t plan ahead and take the terracotta pots of box bushes off the wall outside the back door and they got the full brunt of the storm and yet one more pot fell off and broke. Opportunity to repot in a larger pot and give a healthy amount of feed.

I have also been weeding and digging over the bed around where the Viburnum was. It is looking lovely with so much for-get-me-not in flower. I know it is technically a weed but I don’t care, it is easy to manage is very pretty and as can be see from the photos give loads of colour which is a bit lacking at the moment now that the daffs are over. I have another weed too all under one hedge, celandines, only a weed because it spreads but once its flowered it dies away so what’s the problem. Not weeds anyway - just wild flowers allowed into the garden.

I went for a lovely walk in a wood in Herefordshire last weekend and it was carpeted by bluebells, wood anemones and also some narcissi absolutely lovely. I’m not sure I have seen wood anemones in Dorset woods certainly not in such profusion, they were also growing in the hedgerows along with lots of violets and cowslips.

Anyway back to my garden. Having enjoyed the gain from the removal of the bulky green monster in the main border I am now considering that the escallonia that forms a huge bush 8 foot high and just as wide and doesn’t really do anything except take up a lot of space and needs a ladder and long arms to cut twice yearly can also go – watch this space. I do have another one so will still have the lovely scented foliage for flower arrangements. I’m not sure what should go in the space freed up but it’s a bit like knocking down walls indoors, you are never quite sure how the space will look.

My potted up petunia seedlings are thriving on the garage windowsill, both the ones in plastic pots and newspaper pots. In fact it hard to believe how squashed and bashed they were then they arrived in the post. Not sure how much bigger they should get be before planting out. I have repaired the bottom obelisk and dug over the area ready for planting but even though I am pretty sure that we have had the last of the frost… better wait a bit longer.

The strawberry plants from T&M which are planted in one of those bag things on the patio are in flower and very healthy, so maybe early strawberries, I think the sales pitch in the catalogue went something like ‘the sweetest, juiciest strawberries or your money back’! Still no sign of the tomato plants ordered at the same time.