This year has been a very good year for blossom. Our plums and greengages didn’t have lots of flowers, but considering last year they had virtually no blossom at all, we were happy with that.
Next came the pear trees that were covered with flowers. Now the apple trees are loaded. The Tickled Pink tree – below on the left – has never had as much blossom.
The quince tree also has lots of flowers. The even better news is that the sunny, warm weather means that the bees are very active. Fingers crossed for a good harvest of fruit.
On the allotment, we have been busily planting.
Sweet peas have been planted against the frame that was erected earlier.
We planted the first batch of broad beans.
Some cabbage and cauliflower plants were planted. We are using some brassica collars for the first time. For the last couple of years, brassica plants have suddenly died. We ruled out club-root as the roots seemed OK, so maybe despite being covered by enviromesh, cabbage rootfly are managing to infect them.
The wood pigeons watched us hopefully, but unluckily for them, we covered the bed using an enviromesh tunnel.
One bird that was very welcome was our garden helper, who was never very far away.
Finally, we planted our last lot of potatoes. The first lot is just beginning to push through, so will need earthing up in case of a frost.
We had an afternoon in the garden, where my task was to tidy a small patch where, a couple of years or so ago, I had planted native bluebells, snowdrops, native primroses, and miniature daffodils.
When planting the bluebells, I noticed that there were small pieces of wild garlic mixed in the clump of bluebells.
I left them as I thought they would add to the effect – a big mistake!
Whilst wild garlic looks very pretty in the correct setting, it isn’t at all well-behaved in the garden and spreads at an alarming rate.
I cleared out as much as I could. It had smothered everything else, leaving a bare, dried-out patch of ground which will need replanting. I made a start by moving some native primroses from the allotment.
I have replanted some of the garlic in a rough area under our plum trees, at the allotment, where it can spread to its heart’s content without interfering with other plants.
While I worked in the garden, Martyn spent the afternoon in the greenhouse sowing seeds.
Our hippeastrum/amarylis has been popped in the greenhouse, and I noticed that it had developed seed pods. I wonder whether it will produce viable seeds.
It’s not only been a good year for blossom but also for dandelions
They look lovely in the park but like the wild garlic, are not welcome in the garden.
Our afternoon’s trip out last week took us into Derbyshire to Kedleston Hall which is about an hour and a quarter to the south of us.
We spent the afternoon on what they refer to as the long walk.
Light filtered through the fresh spring green leaves as we took the path through Priest Wood.
The horse chestnuts are just beginning to produce their distinctive flowers.
It’s definitely bluebell time. No wild garlic to smother the flowers here. We spotted patches of mustard garlic (top right), forget-me-nots (top left) and wood anemones (bottom left) as well as the bluebells.
It is also lambing season. These twins were sticking close to mum and their food supply.
The final part of the long walk took us alongside to splash pool .
We continued along the banks of the series of lakes.
The lakes are classified as reservoirs due to their size and are home to white-clawed crayfish, which is a threatened species.
The walk ends at the Robert Adam bridge, seen in the distance.
That’s all for this week, so as always, until next time, stay safe and stay well.
We’ve got a lawn covered with dandelions at present, our next door neighbours have put raised beds in their garden which they’ve filled with flowers and lovingly tend but a part of their garden is carpeted with dandelions which they just leave to go to seed and obviously, those seeds blow over into our garden. So annoying! We’d planned to go to Keddleston Hall a while ago but never got there for one reason or another, it’s still on the list.