April 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Snow on April Fools Day - someone is having a laugh!! No its
true, snow in every month since December. Then dry with easterly
winds from Easter Saturday until 24 April, adding to our stress
levels and that of our plants. It has all been too much for the
more tender ones and it is clear that we have lost numerous large
shrubs, all the penstemons, lavenders, tree lupins, mallows,
cistus, rosemary and myrtles. We await to see the fate of our
dahlias, impatiens and salvias left in the ground as usual to
overwinter. I always feared that pushing the boundaries of what we
can grow in our frost pocket would come unstuck one day.....
On the bright side we have loads of seedlings and cuttings for
the garden and plant sales coming on nicely in the polytunnels,
plenty of vegetables in the ground and starting to grow away, the
hostas bursting into lush growth, and all manner of herbaceous
plants waking from their winter slumbers. Some early flowering ones
are particularly good this year especially epimediums and the
various forms of anemone nemerosa we grow. Some nice clematis
macropetala too in bloom particularly Frances Rivis and Markham's
Pink. Recently acquired they have settled well. Lots of narcissus
still in bloom, well past their normal "sell by" date. The winter
has played havoc with the lawns so another round of re -turfing is
currently in progress, Grass growth in the surrounding fields is
very slow and our farmer friends are complaining that they are
still having to buy feed feed for their sheep.
On the wildlife front the Paddock Pond is overflowing with frog
and toad tadpoles (or should that be toadpoles and frogpoles?!!).
They are exclusively eating the blanketweed which has grown with a
vengance in all the sunny weather and the golden rudd are showing
themselves more often as the water starts to warm up. The summer
migratory birds are returning and in the last few days (later than
usual) the swallows and martins have returned and it's wonderful to
see them again. Best of all is that a pair of pied wagtails are
nesting in one of the boxes on an old alder along the riverbank.
They are such tidy birds like waiters in tails and white shirts and
busy all day long back and forward to their nest. We hope they
raise their brood successfully because they are becoming scarce. No
redstarts seen yet however.
April has been a busy month with garden talks at 4 clubs with
just one more left before the winter/spring series ends. As usual
we have great receptions from members and raised the profile of our
gardens for the NGS, securing 3 more visits. We now have 10 group
bookings for the summer with major tour operators Saga, Hilliers
Garden Club and Gardens Tours, Holland all coming in June. Moira is
chained to the stove baking cakes for Wales!! It would be lovely to
welcome readers of this website to Cilgwyn Lodge so if you are not
coming on one of the trips or can't attend our NGS Open Day on 25
July between 1 and 5 pm please get in touch to arrange a
convenient time for you to come from June to October.
Finally a nice day out can be assured at the annual Spring Plant
Fair on May 3 at Hergest Croft, Kington, Herefordshire. Some really
specialist small nurseries and other garden related products and a
fabulous plantsmans garden, in the same family for over 100 years
www.hergest.co.uk