May!

Its May! it feels like summer and northern towns are full of people wearing shorts!

The garden seems to be fast forwarding into life which is lovely, but as we have the garden safari coming up on 19th May I keep asking the plants very politely to hold off for a week or so

The garden is awash with blue....Echiums all seem to be undecided about whether to flower or not as the ones with rotted tips are flowering, but a couple of others are holding back



'Neighbours' has been the word of late, as input into the garden has been to feel less exposed and on view from the house, so I extended out a bed to create a bit of a barrier with a rather cold whipped bamboo and young Trachycarpus. This view conflicts with the other view about having an open sweeping lawn.. so half is open, half is more covered.

Extending the bed was harder than I thought as under the green grass was 2 bags of rubble and solid clay...so I ended the day with a sunburnt head and backache...

 The greenhouse is getting rather full as things are pricked out, and the Ensetes come back to life (phew). I did need an emergency trip to buy slug pellets as there was a bit of an invasion....even now I'm watching loads of tiny snails climb over the window looking for prey....

 My plant of the week, Pinguicula grandifolia....so pretty! it is carnivorous, trapping tiny flies on its sticky leaves

 I was hoping that the pond would be full of thousands of tadpoles having been kindly gifted some spawn, however all I can see are lots of obese newts that are so fat they aren't even moving out of the way. mmm.

Moving the greenhouse is the other neighbourly concession.....This will be hard as I'm not convinced where to put it or how to re landscape the area as it wasn't something I was thinking about. The ask is for more seating areas which are hidden from the house which this will give, however the current seating area (through the gateway) is on a lower level, and I cant see how it links together....however I think sometimes once you move something you can envisage the space better, and its better to do it now whilst I can still plant things out..... 

This was a nice surprise to see a Yucca flower spike pushing through...

Then I seem to have a lot of Cannas all gradually coming into life and needing a home....also note to self, without clear labels they all look the same!

 Hurrah, banana trees are coming back into leaf!

 the top is looking great with a carpet of forget-me-nots

 This is my potential new greenhouse area....a bit of space I didn't really know what to do with (a sign?) however it could be shady.

Then the bees are super busy, and we have just put on supers (things to collect honey) please let me have more than 4 jars of honey! please don't swarm!

i may have no honey, but I do have lots of purple sprouting broccoli.....this is despite the pigeons eating them all winter and me not netting them. One day I will be a good vegetable grower!