Spring (ing) into action!

This winter in Our Garden@19 has been busy with ‘Estate Maintenance’. I previously posted about replacing the trellis and fence in the white and green garden, then as now my brother Derek has been my right hand man.

Replacing the entrance to the propagation area was the simplest of our recent efforts. We gave it an oriental look.

Continuing with the oriental theme, our neighbour’s fence at the back of the oriental garden started to fall over with the weight of the ivy and snow. I decided to cut back the ivy and erect a new fence on my side.

Note the badger path underneath the fence.

Then painted it black to tie in with the rest of this area.

A moon window was added to look into the room.

Next on the list was rebuilding the raised beds.

The old obelisks I built when we came here were dismantled and rebuilt, hopefully with more style, to a design by Geoff Hamilton.

Broad Bean Scarlet Flower and Sweet Peas started in pots now planted out.

These early spring bulbs and flowers have been cheering me up on sunny days. Please click on gallery pictures to enlarge.

Back to the oriental garden.

In the rest of the garden…

The pollinators have also been taking advantage of the sunshine.

What is springing you into action this spring?

Some Colourful Relief.

With all the terrible weather, gales and floods that the UK has recently experienced, I hope some spring colour will help to bring some relief.

(Fortunately whilst we live close to Upton upon Severn, currently Upton in Severn, we are away from the floods).

Tulip ‘Johann Strauss’ The label said, flowers March to April.

Narcissus ‘Tete a Tete’ and Primula ‘Little Queen Red’

Here’s wishing for a sunny, dry spring.

Tulips, Pots and Saucers.

The beginning of November saw the planting of pots with, crocus, iris, narcissus and species rock tulips.

Old hanging baskets used to keep the squirrels away.

Two large pots either side of the banana bench were planted with Tulip ‘Abu Hassan’, Siberian Wallflowers and Forget-me-Nots.

When the rain finally eased I managed to complete planting my remaining tulip bulbs.

Those of you who regularly follow my blog will know that I rotate dahlias with tulips in the raised beds edging the patio. Last year I used three bulb saucers for the tulips as an experiment to see if it was any easier, when it came to lifting them in the spring.

I was suitably impressed to use them for all the tulips in these beds this year. I purchased extra ones to have four 30cm ones for each bed. One hundred flaming spring green tulip bulbs were shared out between the eight saucers, four pots of Camassia leichtlinii ‘Blue Heaven’ saved from last year, Allium ‘Purple Sensation’ planted around the edge with Wallflower ‘Vulcan’, grow from seed planted in July, in between the bulbs. Forget-me-Not’s will be added in the spring from self-sown ones from around the garden.

Hopefully they will all be putting on a show for our opening on the 2nd and 3rd of May, in aid of the village church, when we will have a plant stall to raise funds for St Richards Hospice, based in Worcester.

Here’s looking forward to Spring.

Snowdrop Temptation.

We visited the first National Garden Scheme, http://ngs.org.uk open garden in Worcestershire on Sunday. The garden, Brockamin, includes Plant Heritage National Collections of Asters and some hardy Geraniums. It opens for Snowdrops in February, Daffodils in March and Asters in September.