A full greenhouse and a full heart
Monday 18 April
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Easter Monday. An extra day in the garden. The day ending with the most wonderful spears of asparagus with butter and slivers of goat’s cheese. If you have room (and our bed is only about one metre by three metres), I do strongly recommend planting some asparagus crowns. For ten months of the year, you will wonder why on earth you bothered.
For eight weeks in the hungry gap, you will live the life of the gods.
Tuesday 19 April
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Indoors and outdoors. I dash out to do jobs, and dash in because the heavens have opened and it is hammering with rain. The compromise position is always the greenhouse. At this time of year, I crave heat. So do pumpkins. I put fifty summer and winter squash in pots on the heat mat and within two days, I have a forest of fat green leaves. Goodness knows where I am going to put them all.
Wednesday 20 April
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The wild garlic is in flower, which means that it is but a short time before the leaves are too tough or too old for the most delicate of pestos. I am still chopping it up and putting it in macaroni cheese a la Thomasina Miers though. Bliss.
And the quince is in full bloom. Who knows if this will mean an actual harvest of quinces but it is beautiful nevertheless.
Friday 22 April
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Bluebells. Suddenly, they are everywhere. Nothing much grows in my front garden, sited as it is under the canopies of a row of huge lime trees. It is not so much that they cast shade, but that they suck the nutrition and moisture out of the soil and it remains hard and compacted whatever I do (and yes, I have tried no-dig, I think it just fed the trees). Two things thrive: a winter clematis that is scrambling over the front wall, and bluebells. They are making their way over from the wall to the front door, a foot or so every year. They add a magical touch to the view from the leaded windows at the front.
Saturday 23 April
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An afternoon at South Wood Farm. A place of wonder and beauty and excellent carrot cake. Set in the glorious landscape where Dorset meets Devon, amongst the rolling hills and dappled valleys, even the lanes that lead to the garden gate are magical. Swathes of shimmering bluebells line the little roads, and the very first of the cow parsley.
All my photographs will be inside Gather this week, but for now, can I gently guide you to this gorgeous piece about the house and garden? Photographed by Éva Nemeth, it is just lovely.
Picture below is mine. I have truly never seen such blossom.
Sunday 24 April
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A day of pricking out and potting on. Lots of my seedlings seem to have stopped growing, which means they need to move on from their seed compost into bigger pots of multipurpose. The weather is just about ok for the hardy annuals, but there is no way I am risking planting out because of the slugs, so everything is staying in until it is a healthy and robust size. Top tip for greenhouses, you will fill up a bench pretty quickly but shelves double (or triple, if you are imaginative) the amount of space you can use. As much as seedlings need a lot of light, these days have been so sunny, the greenhouse can be a stressful place to be. Anything that is happy in partial shade or darker (aquilegias particularly, but all my nicotiana’s have been bumped down a level too) will be happier on a lower shelf.
Record keeping is essential if you are not to lose track at this busy time of year. As well as some unromantic spreadsheets, I do have a paper version of my Sunday night journal. I was delighted to find that South Wood Farm had one too…
