So here they are – I hope it’s true that it’s better to be slightly late than never to arrive (or try) at all …
One. Having mentioned recently that my Crocus tommasinianus in the Iris Garden were a bit of a failure (I’ve planted 60 ‘Barr’s Purple’ in all) they have actually made a small show this year. (Let’s not speak of the 255 other crocus that have been planted on this lawn – some still linger and perhaps there will be a grand come back?)
I’ve gradually changed my mowing regime here because all of those corms were not really doing what I wanted …
Now I mow only from end of May to the beginning of September. It looks tatty long before the end of May, but I am learning to resist the tidiness urge. I strongly suspect I was weakening the corms by cutting the foliage too early.
Oh dear, just had a nasty thought. I did plant (and forget, but my records remind) 30 of C. vernuus ‘Vanguard’ last autumn. Perhaps there will be a knowledgable blogger out there to correct my first ID?
It does look very like ‘Barr’s Purple’ to me, so I’m still hopeful (although they are flowering awfully late for ‘Tommies’).
Two. Elsewhere in the garden, where there’s no mowing, the crocus do just fine. These below are self-seeded in the Rose Walk – little sweeties!
In the Hornbeam Gardens is my favourite C. etruscus ‘Zwanenberg’. I wouldn’t say it’s spreading yet, but it’s definitely going strong and hasn’t dwindled.
Three. Snowdrops. I haven’t got a lot of faith in dried snowdrop bulbs, in spite of recent contact with much more experienced and well-respected growers than I, who firmly believe in moving them ‘dry’. However these, Galanthus woronowii, were bought dry in Sainsbury’s by the BV in 2019 (my records tell me he bought sixty bulbs). The foliage is looking lush on many of those bulbs now and we’ve a smattering of flowers this year.
Much more exciting – I actually took my first snowdrops down from the top of the garden into the orchard borders this week. I think they will be happier down there where it’s cooler. And it could truly be the beginning of the sheets of snowdrops that I’m still hoping to see before I die/leave! The ‘drops’ exported were beginning to go over … I moved small clumps of ‘Warham’ …
G. nivalis ‘Flore Pleno’ …
and G. nivalis …
I didn’t realise how weak I had become and the digging up of them was much harder work than I remembered! I felt rather as if I was brutalising them. But then we had some lovely light rain in the night, which will have helped the poor old bulbs settle a little.
Four. I am finally proud of the veggie plot. It was an awful lot of work and has taken a long time to ‘mature’. What is now three flattish terraces and one gently sloping terrace (the third one down) was originally a single sharpish slope with a flatter terrace at the bottom.
A lot of earth was thrown about. A lot of lavender, santolina and Lonicera nitida cuttings were planted on the banks to retain the soil, and I direct-stuck a lot of box cuttings at the edge of the top 2 terraces to hold the soil back.
I’d like to refine some of it by building up the smaller beds with compost (a bit like ‘lasagne’ beds), and then use low willow hurdling to retain those beds. (I have lots of willow, ready for cutting.)
But those areas are very small, the willow will root – and the box hedges (essential to retain the soil) already are greedy enough with summer water. It’s got to be wood/brick retainers or nothing. Enter the BV fairy?
So, yes – I like the way it looks in February. But it is so hot in summer (a south-facing slope) that it’s not nearly productive enough to justify my effort. We were thinking of giving it a new lease of life as a sunflower field. The birds would enjoy the seedheads more in winter than we enjoy the veg in season …
But I decided to give it one more go this year, using bought in plants if necessary. (I need young plants very early to establish before the heat of May and June and have no heated/well-lit areas to raise them.) Plus, this is the first year I’ve had the luxury of not being in the process of making new borders elsewhere in the garden. They are all done now – although shrub planting will continue into grass.
This week I sowed seed of pea ‘Kelvedon Wonder’ and broad bean ‘Express’. ‘Express’ is new to me – it’s planted in the second bed from the wall in the picture below.
The bed next to the wall is home to permanent plantings of rhubarb, artichokes and raspberries. These all do surprisingly well – I think because our fosse septique pipe is broken underneath them! To be honest, I can’t be bothered to investigate. If I was 20 years younger perhaps …
I always find pea ‘Kelvedon Wonder’ a bit tricky – to support or not to support? If I don’t, it’s a disaster. If I do, my supports are so big that the pea really does look like the ‘dwarf’ it claims to be.
This year I’m going with support. They are sown so early because its very hot here in May/June. I’ll sow more peas lower in the garden in March.
The picture below is just because I can (it was a test/accident actually, but I grew rather fond of it in the editing process). It sort of symbolises a modern gardener’s life. There’s the seed pack, notebook with daily notation of temperatures … and the USB cable for the camera …
Five. Sometimes things actually work out just the way you want them. On at least a couple of mornings during February, the colours I’d planted did leave me a little breathless. So beautiful. But who really created it?
Exactly how I’d imagined. Although there’s a little tiny part of me still saying … ‘room for improvement’. For instance, I always wanted a paved path up the Rose Walk (herringbone brick?). It would be better/neater Nick?
And isn’t Viburnum ‘Charles Lamont’ a goer?
I think he’s been flowering since the beginning of January and has been knocked regularly with frost. Here we are after about 10 days without morning frosts. They are due for a comeback, however.
Six. Too many hellebores, and the mysterious ‘shop-keeper’ that the BV will notice immediately …
Go on over and enjoy everyone else’s offerings at Jim’s Garden Ruminations blog … and have a lovely week!
Garden Dreaming at Châtillon 
Thank you, I do love snowdrops and crocus.
I hope that the frost during the coming week will not do any damage to the garden,
Love x
Even if it’s damaged, it will come round again, that’s life!!!
Crocus only do well for me on raised beds here and just about hang on where I have planted them in grass. I have had the same experience with G. nivalis. I put it down to wet soil.
Oh – very interesting Paddy – I had imagined that your soil was the same light stuff that we had in West Cork – obviously not!
No, quite wet in winter but it dries out quickly enough. A high water table in winter but with gravel several metres down it drains in spring.
I think you have a good amount of hellebores, too few if anything 😉
Love the dogwoods in that light!
Ha Ha, Frank – I’d like more, but ‘specials’ maybe – apricot colours and so on. I remember my father once saying to me that gardening was a wonderful hobby because it didn’t cost anything!!!!
That garden is so steep! My garden was held in place by redwood limbs pegged in place across the slope. They worked like small retaining walls also, but needed to be replaced. Redwood trees constantly provided more material.
Hi Tony – yes, my husband has used beams in places to make steps/retain slopes. We have to do it slowly and it’s better than it was!
The veggie plot looks brilliant!
Do Love your hellébores.