Wonderful Wistful Wisterias

 

2022 is most definitely the year of the Wisteria here in Pear Tree Cottage Garden!! 

 

The Sinensis which grows against the house has been utterly spectacular and no photo or video comes close to doing the slightest justice!  The perfume is divine and floods the house when the windows are open.

My historical and 5th generation Witley Court Wisteria which I propagated from one that grew in my previous garden has now been in the ground for 16 years and is flowering all around the Herb Garden, across the barn, over the Studio and across, up, over and along the pergola!  A younger Wisteria is flowering over the Tool Shed. Lastly a very new Japanese Wisteria is 'getting going' up the garage wall!!

Every garden needs a Wisteria!!

MAY DAY MAGIC!

 

On freeeezing cold and rainy May Day visitors began arriving even before the garden gates opened!! An astonishing £732.75 was raised for the National Garden Scheme. A HUGE thank you to Lyn Wilkes

& her team who slaved in a positively glacial garage & to all 83 visitors who weren't put off by the weather & who eventually found their way to our very rural cottage garden from far & wide!

As always, a special thank you to Chris Pugh for all his hard work & our neighbours who carted & lugged tables & chairs & made delicious cakes & supplied parking.

The weather may have let us down but the Wisteria put on real show!

NOT LONG NOW!!!

 

Getting Edgy!

Elsewhere in the garden the lawn edges have been lovingly manicured all round the garden ..... at l-o-n-g LONG last!! Going round with a half moon edging tool and long handled edging shears is a very time consuming job especially as it's impossible not to find and deal with weeds and we have miles and MILES of edges - not to mention all the tree squares and circles.  It really is never ending.  Having been round with the half moon, at least I can get away with just edging shears and, sometimes, Chris brings his Stihl edging tool and whizzes round the entire garden in about 10 minutes!

Better Late than Never!

 

Work has continued a pace at PTC but the weather has not been cooperative and persistently heavy and late frosts have meant that potato planting and vegetable seed sowing is much later than usual. Good Friday was the day when I managed to get in 4 rows of potatoes, a row of peas and another of broad beans - a whole 15 days later than last year when I did it all on 1st April.  Having said that, we had a two week spell of very cold and wet weather last year and not much likes sitting in cold and wet soil!  

I really have to ration our vegetable selection as the plot isn't very big so I go for the ones we eat and enjoy the most!  I'm also keeping room for a row of Helichrysum flowers which I plan to sneak in somewhere!!

FIRST CUCKOO

  Was standing here listening to our first cuckoo on 9th April!!  Early indeed for us and considering all the hard frosts we've been having, it was an extra surprise!  I don't think this was him but it's such a lovely photo and a lovely few moments!

April Progress.

 Still lots and lots happening in the garden!!  It's that really busy time of year - is there a time when it's not busy in this garden???  Thanks to Chris, the vegetable plot is ready for planting and it looks as if we've seen the last of these vicious frosts a while - thank goodness! Who knows?  I might actually get the vegetables sown and planted? The Dahlias are all  potted up and the fern pit, otherwise known as the underfloor fernery, in the greenhouse has been all cleaned out, de-cobwebbed and new ferns planted.   The greenhouse is looking pretty immaculate as now the outside has been cleaned thoroughly to match the interior!  Am feeling smug as it's such an epic task!

The wallflowers planted up in the Dahlia border for the first time are all in full flower and I can't think why I left it bare last spring!  It's not just their bright colours but also their perfume!  I'm such a glutton for perfume in the garden!! 
Hopefully, by the time they are over, the Dahlias will be ready to plant out.  That's my theory anyway!

The Aspen Grove has really come on with the Euphorbias in their spring glory, the Primulas flowering and the columns all now all upright!  Doesn't sound much but it's very difficult to get them all exactly upright.  Because they taper, it's no good putting a spirit level against their sides and the tops aren't particularly level or square either!  Despite the absence of any Aspens, I think the name will always stick!!  Having said that; the young birch trees (Betula Jaquemontii) are now colouring up and showing their true silver colours.  Funny how the young silver birch trees are all brown.