March 2026

 What a change, the rain finally stopped, after recording 90mm rain during February we had just 8mm in March.

Spring is on its way and the spring bulbs look great on the berm.

The forced rhubarb is pushing through ready to eat. This is lovely and pink and stays so when cooked, delicious. We have covers on just a few of the rhubarb crowns and once picked the pots are removed and the plant is left to recover. It will be a few years now before that crown is forced again.

The magnolia is in flower too, just hope we do not get a late frost as that will blacken and destroy those lovely pink flowers.

Lots of seed sowing happening now but as we do not have heated greenhouses they all go in a small heated propagator, temperatures need to get more consistent and warmer so the space in there is getting  tight. Daytime  temperatures in March have fluctuated from minus 0.3 to 19 degrees c and the green house is not much warmer

2025

 Well what a year!, so hot in the summer, in fact too hot to garden middle of the day over the summer.

We had lots of rain rain on and that helped a lot of the perennial plants and trees.

The biggest apple and pear harvest ever, probably due to the wet early and heat later.

Biggest success, after several years of trying, was the luffa.

As with all gardening we have successes and failures but still managed to harvest plenty of produce, see the table below. Also picked but not recorded were plums, pears, apples and herbs.

 

Lets see what 2026 brings.

April

 A hot dry April and there is a lot of blossom on the trees and bushes. 

The weather has been dry and not too windy so hopefully the pollinators have been busy and the blossom is pollinated so that we get a good harvest of apples and pears, plums and cherries, blueberries and apricots later in the year.

The winter rains have helped the trees and perennial plants with established roots so the hot dry spring has not been a problem. As long as we do get some rain now!

    

                                                        Pear blossom

                                                        cordon apples

                                                      Sops in wine, lovely dark blossom and dark foliage.

March

 February has been and gone and we are over half way through March.

We have had very cold nights and some days well below freezing but warmth in sight.

Very little rain in the last 6 weeks so the clay soil which got very wet earlier in the winter, has now dried enough to make it easier to weed.

Very happy to say the garden is looking good for March, by tackling the weeds early we will hopefully have an easier time as the months progress and weeds will not be too established.

The Berm is looking lovely at the moment, and more new bulbs will appear over the coming months.

The snowdrops have finally gone over now. I always deadhead the special ones to keep the variety true. This will prevent seeding  if they have been cross pollinated. I am not able to identify all the minute differences that make up each one.

Coming up now are daffodils, trillium and lots of buds on the trees and bushes, just starting to burst open.

January

 Another year, lets see what happens in the garden in 2025.

Still harvesting carrots and parsnips, they were very slow to get started but now we have plenty to see us through the winter.

There are no leeks though. Very poor germination and those that did failed to grow.

The chard is very sparse at the moment, the early frost and snow, before Christmas stopped that. But when the weather warms it should start to grow again giving us lovely fresh leaves until (depending on how quickly the weather warms) they finally go to seed.

A big disappointment is that there is no purple sprouting broccoli , one of my favourite early vegetables.

As with the other brassicas last year they failed to grow.

Hopefully 2025 will be a good year for growing.

In the garden now is plenty to see and give hope for the year.

Snowdrops a plenty are coming up and some special ones are really interesting and other flowers open now are:

                                                        primroses

                                                
                                                                    Hellebore

                                                                    Clematis, Freckles

                                                                Clematis Jingle Bells

                                                                    Snowdrops

December

 We have lots of old apple trees in the walled garden with a lot of mistletoe growing on them. 

This year the mistletoe was getting too dense in the tops of the trees and too high for us to remove. So earlier this year we had a tree surgeon come and remove all the mistletoe that was growing above a height that we could safely collect from our ladders.

There was still plenty left that we could pick.

Each year we harvest some of this and sell it to raise money to give to our chosen charities. 

2024 has been a good year for our mistletoe, lovely big berries and we have raised £140 from the mistletoe so a great boost to our charity donations in January.

I always make my own wreath for the front door, using all materials from the garden.

Here is the 2024 wreath.

This year I used a willow base which I made in a willow weaving workshop the other year.

From the garden I collected; holly, ivy, mistletoe, rose hips, yew, spotted laurel, rosemary, Phlomis seed heads and sedum seed heads. Can you spot them all?

It is the beginning of the snowdrop season now, the first early one I have is Mrs McNamara, she is up and flowering now, will last for many weeks and gradually all the others I have will start to appear.

A great sign of 2025 coming.

November surprise, going, going, gone!

Monday, despite the nights getting colder we still have warm days so the dahlias are still flowering and the grass is still growing. Nearly 10 days without rain so I managed to mow the grass again, it was getting very long, a bit damp from overnight dews but I manged to get it done.

Tuesday, woke up the find all is white, paths roads, garden, all covered in about 3 inches (7cm) or more of snow. The dahlias have all gone black so time to cut down and mulch, when the snow melts.

                                                            There is a path there somewhere!

Wednesday, nothing much changed, the overnight temperature in the garden averaged -2 and daytime was 4 degrees.

Thursday, it was warming slightly -1.4 overnight but 3.6 daytime, so the snow was ice on top and not going anywhere.

Friday,  I can see the garden now. Overnight we are out of minus figures with an average of 1.4 and during the day 6 degrees.

Saturday, the white has all gone, overnight temperature 6.1 and during the day a blistering 16.1. Snow has melted but it is raining. 

Sunday, in the last 2 days we have had 28.73mm of rain.