Gurt lush!

We returned home from the airport a week ago in the very early hours of the morning. We'd been away for ten days and during our absence the English countryside had blossomed in spectacular fashion.The car headlights lit roadside verges awash with cow parsley and overhanging hedgerows were a white-out of may blossom. Everywhere was lush and green. It looked like a Helen Allingham watercolour.

Helen Allingham 'The Cottage Gate.'
1884-1926

On holiday in Crete we had been told that their winter weather had been warm and dry, there were none of the beautiful wild flowers that we usually see in Greece at this time of year, the landscape looked barren.
But what a difference ten days away from home can make - I've been on catch-up in the garden ever since!

Holiday washing on the line.

The perennial borders jam packed

and starting to colour up.

After many months of rain there is more moss than grass on the lawn. We've put down lawn sand. Once the moss blackens we'll start the great rake-up!

The pond is pretty messy and I've had a bit of a go at cleaning it out. But there are lots of newts in there and they seem happy enough so I'm loathe to purchase any chemical cleaner.

It's good to get away but it's great to be back home, especially in May when everything is bursting into life!

At last!

It's sunny and warm - at last! Suddenly everything looks promising; trees and hedges greening up, the perennial borders springing into life.

The earth is disappearing as old favourites emerge, along with the bane of my gardening life, the invasive weed, ground elder.

The daffodils are going over

 but the pear trees are full of blossom.

The tree peonies are putting on a show. My labels have faded so, unfortunately, I no longer know their names.

I'm busy planting out in the veg plot, erecting barriers so that the pigeons don't demolish the lot.

I'm using the bits of metal and netting from my old fruit cage. It collapsed in spectacular style one winter under the weight of snow when I'd neglected to remove the roof netting - not a mistake I shall make again! Today I struggled to put up the netting on the replacement cage. What a faff - swearing was involved!

The bird barriers don't look pretty, but they do the job.

I also use redundant glazing units to create some wind protection.

There is only one squash left from last year's crop. I cut into this one, mmm, a lovely sweet perfume as the knife cut the flesh. I've planted some of the seeds.

I'm a simple soul, give me some warmth and sunshine and I feel really OPTIMISTIC!

Blue

I love the colour blue in the garden and in late spring (LATE spring? It feels like winter!) blue flowers start to appear with all the earlier yellows, to the benefit of both. The forget-me-nots that self-seed each year (and get dug up and repositioned) are in full flower along with the bluebells and camassia.

As the 'St Patrick's Day daffodils fade they become paler and, to my mind, prettier.

But, in spite of sunshine there is a bitterly cold wind which makes planting out too much of a risk. Frosts are forecast for the week ahead. I've never had so much bare soil so late in the season.

I've planted the onions in this patch,

but the beds for greens, roots and brassicas remain empty. Meanwhile the greenhouse is bursting with young plants waiting to be put outside. They come out to harden when it's suitable but most of their time is spent tucked up under cover.

Shape up, weather - I'm champing at the bit!

April skywatch

April showers

and plum blossom

for Skywatch Friday.

Rhubarb, rhubarb

I've posted this recipe before, but Donna didn't know what to do with her rhubarb once she'd grown it and this is my favourite recipe, so here it is again, equally nice eaten hot or cold.

I grate the orange rind directly on to the uncooked rhubarb. Neither do I bother to liquidise the sugar and cornflour mix. The sauce colours when the yolks are added.

Simple to make, colourful  - and tasty.

Sunset

Looking over the garden hedge 

at tonight's sunset

for Skywatch Friday.

And wishing you a good weekend ahead.

Potting

Potting, pootling and being driven potty by the weather. I keep hoping to have a decent day to do some much needed work in the garden but every time I get my boots on the heavens open. Thank goodness for a greenhouse were I can sow a few seeds that won't rot away in the sodden ground. I've usually planted my broad beans and first early peas outside by now but this year I've resorted to sowing them in the greenhouse. Everything is late, the St Patrick's Day daffodils are only now in flower. 

I ordered 100 litres of perlite to keep my potting mixture healthy and realise that it's much better value to buy in bulk like this. (I'm rather late in life to be only just making this discovery!)

Took the lid off the rhubarb forcer 

and discovered enough for a pudding.

Well, that's cheered me up!