Six on Saturday – 23rd April 2022

A lack of rain and a cold drying wind have some things looking a bit parched here – I need to get out and do a spot of judicious watering. The weather was just the same this time last year, according to my sort-of garden journal. A busy weekend of planting out and potting up awaits me and I shall try to post again tomorrow, but in the meantime here are my Six on Saturday (well seven actually, I’m cheating this week!) Happy Saturday to SoSers all around the world, and happy gardening, hope the weather is kind where you are.

Camassias really love our moist rich Welsh soil. I’m really pleased with the way the pinky-purple tulips and the red hints on the new rose foliage pick up the pink undertones in the camassia spires. It’s at least half deliberate on my part. The camassias keep spreading – their beauty is fleeting but they provide such welcome vivid blue and good form and height so early in the season that I’m happy to leave them to it.

I’m taking a bit of a gamble here but I’ve put the potted tender perennials outside for the Summer season. This should turn into a billowing collection of foliage and flower soon, with the warmth bouncing off the patio paving and the wall of Chief Engineer’s office (West-facing). The flamingos have been in for a service and had a re-spray. My Dear Friend and Gardener observes these and remarks that I refuse to take gardening seriously, don’t I? On the contrary, I say, I am very serious about it indeed! They remind me of Alice in Wonderland. If only we had hedgehogs.

Great year for apple blossom so far, I just hope we don’t get very high winds and heavy rain smashing it all before fruit sets. this is St Cecilia, a relatively new addition to the garden. St Cecilia is a variety bred in the village we live in. It was grafted specially for me by a nursery in West Wales, on a very dwarf rootstock. The diminutive height has given me an opportunity to smell the blossom, which I never have before. It has a light, subtle, fresh scent, it smells of Spring.

An unusually understated tulip for me, Spring Green. I wanted one border to be a bit more subtle. This border is the last to get sun as it gets higher through the year (again, West-facing) plus it suffers from running along the leylandii hedge. Here Spring Green battles on regardless, looking rather fine with the honesty in the background and the slightly glaucous new growth on the valerian all around it. This is partially a medicinal herb bed. I use the valerian leaves for tea and also make tincture from the roots – it really does help with short-term sleeplessness, plus the flowers are pretty and insects love it. My phone camera doesn’t seem to like photographing white. I don’t grow a lot of white, actually, but it does lift and brighten and I think I might start introducing more of it.

Mr Mole is causing havoc! Whilst I am very grateful for the piles of beautifully tilled soil which make great potting compost, I should prefer it if he went away. Does anyone have any ideas, please?

A double cheat here as these last two pictures take me to seven in total and they are not from my garden, but the sight is too beautiful not to share, though my elderly phone camera does not do it justice. Bluebells as far as the eye can see, a beautiful haze of blue in woodlands near our home, managed by a truly wonderful little charitable trust. Every year they get better and better. I wish I could share the smell, too, which is heavenly.

Check out the other Six on Saturday posts from other gardeners via The Propagator’s page, http://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com .

Here are a few other SoSers whose posts I’ve been enjoying recently: http://gardenruminations.co.uk;

http://wisconsingarden.wordpress.com;

http://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com

http://frogenddweller.wordpress.com