At least there are plenty of reasons to be
cheerful out in the sunshine, including…
1.
Big birds are back
The storks have returned and taken up
residence on telegraph poles in Etropole, as usual. Won’t be long before we see
baby storks up in the nests.
2. Flowery floweriness
The primroses and plum blossom in the garden
are extremely cheery, and the perennial flower border is beginning to wake up. I
love it when all the plants emerge like a tight tapestry in spring, even though
it’ll be weeks before I remember what everything is.
Also, after my last post, a reader asked what
I meant by forcing dahlias, so here’s a pic of one of our dahlia tubers potted
up in the house and starting to shoot. By the time the risk of frost has passed
and we plant this bad boy out, he'll be nice and bushy. I’ll also take cuttings from
the young shoots to increase my stock of plants. Free plants, people, free
plants.
Ignore the string. I tied that there before we dug up the tubers last year, to remind me to take lots of cuttings from this particular plant. |
We do a similar thing with our gladioli, in
that we start them off indoors. Luckily, they’re quite happy just sitting in a
shallow tray of water, which saves loads of pots and compost. Look closely and
you can see roots growing from the bottoms and growth starting to shoot from
the tops. They’ll easily be a foot tall by the time we plant them out.
3.
Asparagus smugness
It’s here! Asparagus season is here! We picked
our first crop of 2019 today, nattily arranged the spears by size (as you do), then made
a delicious lunch of buttered asparagus, eggs and pesto on toast. We’ll be
eating asparagus twice a week now until the beginning of June, and no doubt
feeling very smug about it.
Elsewhere in the garden, this year’s garlic
crop is looking good, and the rhubarb is getting bigger by the day.
And now, I’m back off outside to enjoy the
sunshine and distract myself from The Guardian’s Brexit live feed.