I’ve finally managed to have a few good sessions in the garden – it’s been so wet up to recently that I’m way behind on the spring tidy up, over Easter I managed two good days in the garden…

I spent Saturday tidying up round the pond, there’s still a lot to do as it really needs a good clear as a few plants are taking over. It’s probably over ten years since I really did any big work on this bed so I think it’s due for a sort out…

The pond is full of duck weed as you can see but as we do have a resident frog, a few toads and quite a lot of newts, I don’t want to clear it just yet in case there’s some frog or toad spawn in there. I also want to remove all the edging stones, clear any weeds that are hiding underneath the plastic membrane, then relay the stones neatly so they hide the plastic again. It would be nice to have plant’s growing in there again and I have a catalogue of a nursery which does collections for small ponds, I’m tempted – once I’ve cleaned it out.

The Solomon’s Seal is starting to push it’s tall stems up, that’s one that really needs clearing as it’s encroaching in quite a large area, I’ll probably move a bit to where it’s got room to spread. There’s also a crocosmia Lucifer that’s just getting too big, the problem I have there is that it’s intermingled a bit with some irises which I want to keep and the strappy leaves all look very similar!

The log roll edging is finally rotting away. On Sunday afternoon we dug out the straight section next to the path, I had to clear lots of snowdrops, at the moment I’ve a big bag ready to transplant or give my daughter, luckily ‘in the green’ is the best way to move snowdrops. These are a bit precious to us as they came from my mum’s garden. We replaced the log roll with a straight plank of wood which will hopefully weather fairly quickly. I’ve replanted lots of snowdrops in a strip along the edge of the path so they can gradually spread inwards a bit whilst leaving me room to plant other things.

Over in the Amber and Amethyst garden there’s a lovely little area just by the path as you walk up to the back lane. This is my favourite hellebore, it’s a beautiful wine red colour. It just seems to pick out the soft shade of the hebe next to it and contrasts nicely with the golden leaves of the berberis behind. The perennial wall flower is just starting to flower too.

Down by the patio I had a good tidy-up last week, the pottery still need a a bit of refreshing, but it’s looking a lot better than it did. The pink camellia has been lovely this year, adding a much needed bit of early colour. There’s a little blue clematis just starting to flower next to the arbour too. I’ve a few gaps in the borders here as I moved a couple of shrubs which were getting a bit big. They’re at the side of the house now and looking very happy there, I’ll show you them another week as Bella decided to pose on the patio…

As I said to my friend the other day, the garden looks nice,,,from a distance, so you can’t see the weeds and the jobs that need doing! The magnolia stellata is still looking glorious, at dusk it almost seems to glow, it’s one of my favourite trees in the garden.

Hopefully we’ll now have some decent gardening weather and I can catch up a bit.