Well, that has to have been the worst spring in my 30 years of gardening – a record dry and cold April, floods and hail at the beginning of May, and now very strong winds in mid May. Several of my plants have lost their flowers/buds, and a few plants have been lost completely, but there have still been some highlights. My wisteria looked great (until the gales!!), my potatoes are thriving, and – with the delayed flowering of many plants due to the weather, it looks like it is going to be a bumper and very colourful early summer.
But actually this week, I haven’t been gardening as much as normal. Taking advantage of the relaxation of COVID restrictions, I had a few days in Devon/Cornwall, including looking at some gardens.
The first was RHS Rosemoor. Most famous for a fantastic rose display, which hadn’t started flowering yet, there were still a couple of excellent displays. The first is in photo 1, and is the Potager Garden. This was a movement started in France, whereby fruits and vegetables were planted as a display, not just as a kitchen garden, and looked great.
The second shown in photo 2, was a lovely spring riverside display, showing candelabra primroses, camassias, irises, persicaria and ferns.
The following day I was at the Eden Project, and spent a lot of time in the Mediterranean and Rainforest biodomes. Photo 3 shows the rainforest biodome, photo 4 some anthurium, photo 5 some proteas from South Africa (my favourite plant), and photo 6 some kangaroo paw.
Once back in soggy and windy Ferndown, I have now started sowing seeds for sunflowers, cobaea scandens, Spanish flag, morning glory, sweet peas as well as several varieties of dwarf French beans. There is still lots of summer bedding plants to be planted out in various tubs and baskets, and of course preparing for the next Greenfingers meeting on Wed/Thurs. Lots to do!!
Happy gardening!!
Kevin
Greenfingers Potager
Greenfingers riverside display
Greenfingers rainforest dome
Greenfingers anthurium
Greenfingers Protea
