New Boot Reboot

In the way of these things, the best gardening days for weeks arrived and both my wellies and gardening boots gave up the ghost. Nothing for it, I ordered some new ones and persevered with the weird sensation that there was a tortoise inside my boot whilst they scoured the country for a teeny tiny pair (I went for proper workman boots with all the steel bits this time and your standard electrician/plumber/joiner is not, apparently, prancing around in size 6s).

Pending the arrival of the singing and dancing safety footwear I carried on with the back of the hot bed, weeding and mulching and smuggling in some lily bulbs. This is a bit of the garden I don’t always get to and after the first flush of hellebore and the white daffodils it can be a little understated. However, last year’s mulching really improved the soil in places and, having taken decisive measures with the midwinter fire cornus to help regenerate the bright stems, I decided that this year it will have more of a moment. I’m keeping the cool and restful theme, but brightening it with tall white lilies and some extra hostas (the white and green one by the top pond has been reduced by a third as it was getting a bit carried away.) Anyway, I’m hoping any visitors will wander down to cool off (because obviously we will be enjoying permanent sunshine from now on.)

With the arrival of the new boots, I got my spade out and went for it with gusto. An annoying acanthus spinosa and several giant self sown clumps of carex pendula by the top pond were despatched to the heap. There are still a few to go in the bottom pond, but in rather tricky positions so that an over-vigorous heave might tip me in. I am considering the best angle of attack carefully. The resultant spaces are designated for annuals this year as I suspect the bloody acanthus will be coming back for a while yet – the reincarnation properties of even the tiniest bit of root are extraordinary. In the longer term, I’m thinking about some echinacea maybe. I’ve done not badly with seed for these before and I don’t think it’s too late yet for next year flowering. I am hitting the seed catalogue later…. The gap left after I tobered the variegated hosta has been filled with some new golden martagon lilies (and a cat poo as no freshly dug area is safe from our two – ever on the look out for a nice soft latrine courtesy of aunty Karen…).

The rest of the new lilies *coughs sheepishly – I got a bit carried away* have been scattered willy nilly all around the garden, white ones in the back of the library patio (where I’ve done some serious clearing out), more golden ones under the baby ginkgo in the hot garden, and pink ones in the big bed to the north of the bottom pond, again filling spaces where I’ve been brutal with some overweening lysimachia. All of this shuffling around has left me with a raft of spare divisions so I am gradually increasing the stocks for the charity plant sale on our open day. There’s still a fair bit to do – the iris need dividing again for a start – but out in the sun with my new turbo charged boots, everything seems possible. The mania to divide and conquer has even taken hold of Keith and he has manfully reclaimed the kitchen garden path from the advancing rhubarb.

Wandering around between onslaughts with the tree spade (much better for slicing through heavy roots and levering up clods than a border spade I think) I have been enjoying the blue moods of spring. Keith’s rockery is bright with anemone blanda. Pulmonaria and brunnera are twinkling away under the trees and along the margins and down at the end of the long border the quadrant bed under the Rainbows’ oaks (donated (via Brown Owl) as small sprouts by a pack in Nottingham) is awash with sparkling chionodoxa. The best thing though, on a sunny day, is the gentle scent of violets that pervades the front lawn where, escaping the borders, they have formed a huge colony.