It's a new (gardening) year...

...a New Day, a New Dawn....

.....and time to get gardening again....

Sunshine - even the washing out!
Spring is here.

Winter was wet and windy.  Very wet and very windy but not exceptionally cold.  We had only a few days of frost and no snow.  We are a bit too close to the coast to get snow unless there is simply masses everywhere.  Now spring is here and so far it is a much better spring than last year.  Sunshine has been a feature and fairly calm winds.   The garden did suffer wind damage in the winter.  The willow-weave fence broke, or I should be specific and say a post broke so that had to be temporarily repaired by Alec... I am waiting for Chris to come and make the permanent repair!  The wind snapped the post which was concreted into the ground.

The sheds both lost roof felting.  The TV aerial blew down.  The big rosemary bush died, I think it drowned.   The lavender and sage are looking sad but I think they may recover given time and sunshine.  These are all annoying but normal.   And the weeds abound.  Oh my, the weeds certainly abound.

The first thing I did a few weeks ago was sow seeds.  First of all vegetable seeds and then flower seeds.  I very soon ran out of space in my little electric propagator so I treated myself to a bigger one with my loyalty savings at our local plant nursery from all of last year.

The new (bigger) propagator and the old one.

Seed germination after just a few days!

Among the seeds planted are Capsicum Pepper, Chilli Pepper, Gherkin Cucumber, Squash, Yellow Skinned Courgettes, Verbascum, Echinacea, Geum, Bergamot...and I can't remember what else...
They have germinated, some better than others.

The plants I left to over-winter in the greenhouse are looking healthy.

Taken a couple of weeks ago,
looking even better now.

S&R have sold their house and had a few plants in pots they very kindly passed on to me and G.  I gained another pink Camellia, a Logan Berry (like a raspberry but no thorns) and a blueberry bush.

Camellia

Other new plants in the garden as gifts for Mother's Day are a Passiflora, third time lucky?  Seren ate the previous one and another one before that I damaged, so hopefully this one will survive and thrive.  Also a creamy white Montana Clematis and G gave me another Syringa Red Pixie - a dwarf one.   Seren seems to have given up digging in the garden and pulling up plants.  Unless it is on the dunes .  She's keen on digging for moles ever since she saw a mole heave pop up in front of her eyes.   So, that's very OK with me.  I doubt she will ever catch a mole...

Spring is a good time in my garden for bulbs.  Do you remember the wheelbarrow I planted up last autumn? Scroll down to my last post, it is featured there.   This is how it was looking 2 weeks ago, and since then the orange tulips have all bloomed - it is a real burst of sunshine just outside the kitchen window.

A lot more tulips out now.

Tulips are a favourite of mine for their looks and for the easy no fuss plant they are.  They are like bright jewels at this time of year.

Pale creamy yellow and a green one

Lovely flamenco red one

Marbled purple

My favourite colour combination 

Tulips are value for money - they really are guaranteed to make you feel more cheerful and the bees like them too.

There were two other bulb I bought last autumn.  Fritillaria Imperialis which can grow to over a metre tall.  Mine haven't - maybe a bit too wet?  But nevertheless they are growing every day about 2 centimetres every night.  They seem to be a bit prone to slug and snail damage and have done better since I sprinkled them with slug pellets.

Fritillaria Imperialis

The bluebells are just beginning to bloom.  This one I think is a Spanish bluebell - they can be invasive.  I bought the bulb as a British Bluebell so I am hoping it is ...

I think it is a Spanish Bluebell -
pretty but an invasive alien ...

The British bluebells are a deeper blue and are daintier somehow...I have some just beginning to bloom now so next time I will put a photo in my post for comparison.

The Hyacinths have been loving a spot up by the little green-cupboard in the righthand corner.

Hyacinths

The ones by my kitchen door are 'over' but wafted their scent around every time  anyone went past them.

The trees are beginning to get leaves.  The lilac bush has loads of buds this year too.  It flowered for the first time last year.  Even the fig is putting out its leaves.

Fig leaves.

The primroses have been a picture.  The lovely native ones from J&D's garden have really glowed this season and the drumstick primula is pretty too.

Native Primrose..my favourite primrose, by far.

Drumstick primula

Oh, and let's not forget the self-seeded Forget-Me-Nots that come up year after year.  They are just so cheerful.

Cheerful Forget-Me-Nots

So, indeed, a new day, a new dawn, a new season to get on with the digging, weeding, planting, mending.....

Today I weeded the strawberry patch under the apple tree.  It is a tricky place to crawl about, I feel as if I will never straighten my back again tonight.  I hope it will be worth it with a crop of strawberries to celebrate later on.

So, with black fingernails and and aching back I will bid you happy gardening until next we meet...

Euphorbia

Dig deep, sow generously and enjoy it all.