The clocks sprang forward last Sunday meaning that Monday was the first after work evening we sat out on the patio and enjoyed a drink, when, as if in honour of this moment, the cuckoo announced his arrival. Monday 27th March- 24 days earlier than he arrived home last year!
This weekend I picked the first of my narcissi still in bud, we garden at 1029 feet above sea level and so most things tend to be about 2 weeks behind that which we find off the hill. Its nice to get a heads up on what’s coming next. The Ribes sanguineum (Flowering Currant) is at its best this week, I find it’s scent lovely out in the garden when in full sun, it’s sweet and fruity, just a couple of stems in a bouquet is enough to fill a room with scent, but more than a couple of stems is sickly! The hellebores are now starting to go to seed, which is in fact the perfect time to pick them for best vase life. Grape hyacinths (Muscari) are now at their best too, we only have a little clump of them which I dug from my nans garden a couple of years ago and so I make a mental note to add more to the garden, we are on the look out for the pretty pink variety called pink sunrise. Forget-me-nots are coming into their stride, the first few little flowers have emerged and soon they will grow taller and be perfect for picking, their vase life is brilliant and they grow abundantly here in the garden, self seeding everywhere.
In the field next door the first lambs arrived on Sunday morning; twins! Followed by another one in the afternoon, looking too small for their baggy skin but they’ll grow into it so fast! Spring is picking up momentum and there aren’t enough hours in the day to keep up with its pace.
We created two more 6 meter no dig beds down at the field, it was great this week to find a good source of wood chip from the local tree surgeon and manure from a local horse keeper. I figured that even if these beds don’t get planted this spring it’s a good step in the right direction just to get the ground prepared for planting when I have the stock. It’s probably even beneficial to allow the cardboard layer time to decompose and the worms to get to work before planting- I might plant some chrysanthemums later in the season if I can decide on varieties!
I’ve also been reading a really great book ‘The cut flower sourcebook’ by Rachel Siegfried. Rachel is a flower farmer florist who uses perennials and woody plants as the backbone for her floristry. Part of the book includes a plant directory which Rachel has put together in such a useful way, a brief description of each plant with tips on spacing, specifically when growing for cutting, on when to harvest, on conditioning, and some potential uses, for example what is flowering at the same time as the specified plant which it would work well with in floristy. And a tip on propagation for each plant too. Really useful and enjoyable to read. In fact the whole of the book is written in such a way that the read is enjoyable and all the information is logically presented and easy to follow- all the pictures are annotated too which I really love. I would 100% recommend this book!
Anyway, that’s all for now. Happy spring! And I hope you have a lovely week.
Rebecca
