Tulip Medley

Back in November I posted about planting my tulip bulbs. I have two small beds surrounded by box hedges and with potted holly trees in the centre of each outside the back of the barn. These are my attempt at "formal" beds and the idea originally was to have a show of single colour tulips in Spring followed by a different type of bedding plant each summer. As you can see, such plans have gone awry - I do plant a different species of tulip each Autumn and try to dig up all the bulbs of the previous one, but obviously I have missed quite a few, and after 5 years we now have quite a mix. Not what I intended, but at least it's colourful, I suppose!

This year's Summer bedding is Sweet Williams bought from a very green-fingered and creative acquaintance in the village, which , since they are biennial , have been happily growing in the bed since last summer and should put on a good show this year.

Also, I just wanted to show the layout from the final class I did during the UK Scrappers Cyber Crop at the weekend. The class was by Sarah Youde and involved distressing, sewing and using raffia - good fun. Now the Cyber Crop has finished I feel at a loose end creatively -  not that I haven't got lots of things I could be finishing off - knitting and sewing projects especially, and I need to make a card for my Sister-in-Law's 50th birthday...I think I need to have a play with some of my supplies and try to get inspired.

Cutting back

Now that Spring has at last arrived I am trying to get all the cutting back and tidying up done in the garden that we usually start about a month ago but weren't able to with all the snow and then rain. I'm really racing against Nature's clock here, as traditional wisdom says all pruning and cutting back should be done by the end of March, which is on Wednesday! I've done the fruit trees, the Cornus, some roses and other shrubs and made a start on the Siberian Irises, but there is still a lot to do. Looks like good weather for it today, so after lunch I will be out there again with my trusty gloves, shears and secuteurs...

Tulips

Yesterday I managed to get an hour in the garden and planted my tulips, which were beginning to sprout. I love tulips and every year I plant a new variety in two small formal beds we have outside the back of the barn. I am very taken with the idea of formal beds with a succession of bulbs and bedding plants through the year, surrounded by box hedges ( I visited Sissinghurst at an impressionable age!) and these two small beds are my rather basic formal garden. After the bulbs I only have one lot of summer-flowering plants, although it would be nice to follow these with something that will last through the winter, like pansies. This year I have put in Sweet Williams which are biennial and are happily overwintering to flower next summer. I have been spectacularly disorganised about the tulips, though, not only have I left it rather late to plant them, I also managed to throw away the label where I had writen the variety name, and now I can't remember what they are. Possibly "Ballade", as that is the name which comes into my head, and there is actually a tulip of that name. Oh well, it will be a surprise in the Spring to see what they look like!

This is one of the beds, just before planting.




And here is my assistant gardener, Edwina, who always jumps out of the pen and comes to dig around, very unhelpfully, whenever I attempt any weeding or planting.

Fairy Ring

Today on the way back from a bike ride with I ( which was not an unqualified success since he got very cold ears and very tired so we ended up pushing the bikes up the last stretch), I saw this round one of the birch trees in the garden. All the birches had fungi around them, but this one had a complete fairy ring. Is there something in birch roots which attracts them, or do we really have fairies at the bottom of the garden?

Also, a picture of Saturday's Halloween pumpkin. The ones I took while it was lit on Halloween didn't come out well enough...