Six on Saturday – 27th April 2024

The weather weighs heavily upon the frustrated gardener and life in and out of the garden overwhelms this one, hence me missing a week’s blogging last week. It feels cold, it’s raining AGAIN, nothing will germinate successfully yet several things in the garden seem bafflingly early… these are confusing times. The garden soldiers on regardless. I should perhaps take a leaf out of its book and relinquish my pervasive need for control: as usual, the garden has a life lesson for us, if we are only open to receiving it.

Without further musing, here are six some from me. Six from Jim, our knowledgeable host, can be found here: https://gardenruminations.co.uk/2024/04/27/six-on-saturday-27-4-2024/ along with the rest of the SOS gang.

The gooseberries are setting fruit. This seems very early to me. I failed to prune them when I should have and now I have sprawling beasts. I have far too many bushes. Neither of us are even huge fans of gooseberries. I like a gooseberry fool but Chief Engineer is not a huge fan, though smothering most things in custard and/or crumble topping will usually persuade him to eat them. I should give some bushes away, really. Or open a nursery, but I suspect that is a truly thankless task!

Also seeming very early to me, strawberries flowering their socks off. Chief engineer diligently netted them last week. I am now anxiously patrolling, as the little wren has a habit of finding the tiniest of gaps and wandering in, however hard we try to pin down the entire edge. Fingers crossed for a good crop.

Potatoes coming through (and a fair few weeds too, in need of hoeing). Behind, Chief Engineer has put the nets on the walk-in fruit cage, just in time too since the blackcurrants are also setting fruit (and also seem very early to me, and these DID get pruned in good time). Despite this cage being harder to net well, the wren doesn’t seem to get stuck in here. Perhaps it’s just easier for her to get out of unaided!

Continuing on that theme of earliness (is that a word?) the geums seem to have opened early this year too. I like to see them alongside the bright pink corncockle and the lime green euphorbia oblongata, but I have some concerns that they will not all be in flower at the same time this year. Oh well, nothing I can do about that (except perhaps assiduously deadhead the geums in hope of prolonging their season…)

Quite seasonally appropriate, I believe, is the apple blossom, which is looking lovely on the two Golden Delicious trees (or Golden Just About Tolerable, as I prefer to call them). The prettiness of the blossom almost compensates for the thoroughly underwhelming fruit, which is adequate for a crumble but barely passable as an eating apple. Another thing I should replace, really, but I can’t bring myself to get rid of the existing ones, it seems such a waste.

I am not terribly fond of the camassias – the time they spend looking messy far outlasts the time they spend in peak performance. Yet they thrive in our rich moist soil, often to the detriment of their neighbours. That lilac-y blue does seem to shine on a dull grey day, though. Another year of me dithering about whether to bin them or not.

I’m feeling rebellious so I’m chucking in a 7th, to return slightly to the “is this early?” theme. Honeysuckle, granted in a sheltered sunny spot, but it seems quite early to me? Honestly I can’t tell any more, I seem to have lost all perception of what is normal. I suppose normality is subjective anyway.

The Under-Gardener has the right idea, I think. He’s staying indoors and dreaming of warmer days.