I’ve been working hard in the garden over the Easter weekend, but I haven’t managed to do any gardening, I’ve been doing a bit of woodwork instead. I rather enjoy doing basic carpentry for the garden, I’ve made several obelisks in the past, even a flight of steps which is still going strong-ish after about 12 years. Here’s a sneak preview of my endeavours – I’ll do a full post later this week…

We’ve had a very dry spring here in Yorkshire, so flowers and blossoms seem to be earlier from the warmth but some plants and shrubs are struggling with the lack of rain – I’ve actually been watering plants I’ve put in this year which is very unusual for April. April is known for it’s showers, but hopefully (however much we enjoy the sunshine!) the weather is going to break on Wednesday with thunderstorms and then showers for about two weeks, it’s what the gardens and the countryside need. Ilkley moor was on fire Saturday night and two more moors are on fire tonight – we need rain!!

Everything seems to be shooting up at the moment. In front of the pond is an ever-increasing patch of Solomons Seal, they seem to be growing several inches a day, they’ll be flowering within a couple of days. The erithroniums are all flowering (dog toothed violets), I think this one is called Pagoda, it’s a delicate, nodding, yellow flower.

The patio area is starting to fill up too, we had coffee out there this morning on the bench that will eventually be under my new arbour. There’s a small aquilegia just starting to flower, it’s has very pretty blue and white flowers, behind it is the foliage of another taller aquilegia shooting up, I think this one has creamy flowers. I’m planning that this bed will be soft blues and creamy whites, so there’s a purple sage, a creamy white standard rose and a very pretty white cytisus (broom) that was an impulse buy at last years Harrogate Flower Show. The mauve perennial wallflower has been flowering for a while and will probably continue most of the year.

At the other end of the patio is the arbour, there’s a rose called The Generous Gardener growing up the right side but up the left is an alpine clematis, it’s one of the earlier flowering clematis so it looks really pretty at the moment with it’s nodding blue bells and lime green leaves.

Over in the Amber & Amethyst garden is my new pride and joy, the result of my toil and labour!!! My arbour, soon to be painted with a seat below! Next to it is an obelisk I made a couple of years ago, I’m really pleased how the rose is covering it this year, I made a concerted effort to tie in branches earlier in the year and it seems to have paid dividends! The tall purple flowers you can see in front is the plant I was trying to identify a few weeks ago, I think it’s a purple leaved honesty, which has lovely silvery seedpods like papery moons.

I don’t often show you the front garden, but at the moment there’s an eschordia The Bride in flower, I only planted this a couple of years ago so I’m pleased it’s already giving a good display of blossom.

In comparison, I planted a magnolia, probably about fifteen years ago, and it’s still a bit miserable! I love magnolias, but I made the mistake of planting a purple flowered one, having only seen pictures, not the real thing! Somehow the purple always looks a bit drab, always seems to get hit by frost worst than other colours…and it’s still only about five feet tall!!!

It’s the Harrogate Spring Flower show this week, my friend and I are going on Thursday, it’s one of our annual treats! I need some clematis to grow over my new arbour and I’m sure I’ll be tempted by a few more plants!