Another interesting month passes through, with days of extremes, biting wind, torrential rain, blistering sunshine and hail that lay like snow. It didn’t exactly inspire confidence and the gardeners twitched, hesitated and then did what they do and battled on, it being after all the start of another season. Certainly, you have had to have your wits about you and then the clocks changed. New light just makes so much difference and the extended day allows us to play.

As always there is plenty of squaring up to do and the lawns need to be pulled back to order. I have just set out a bit of grass seed too. It will get going fairly quickly at this time of the year. I have only run in a bit of hardwearing seed, it’s cheap and it goes a long way, I always think that grass illustrates the magic of growing really well, with a bright green sheen sweeping out within a few to transform space. I do sometimes use turf (and that too will take easily now), but the magic is different. I am trying to liven up a few pots at the moment and garden centre seem to have plentiful supplies of good hardy plants around, especially those that are perennial or biennial (and so will do more than one season). This year in particular Anemones seem to be in plentiful supply and for all the implied tenderness of the foliage, this is a wonderfully robust family, offering a mix of very jolly, strong colours. I have made the space.

In all of the excitement of that colour, I need to remind you, that the garden gate is open and there is much to do. You can be sowing seeds for all sorts and often in the open, just check the packets for confirmation and there are plenty of plants around too. A good range of leaf vegetable plants, so cabbage, cauli and lettuce are all safe as are broad beans and peas. If you haven’t already done it, then your potatoes can go in any day and there is still time to catch up with onions. Before we know it there will be bedding plants everywhere.

And finally, please don’t buy Marrow or Runner Bean plants, it is far too early unless you are going to grow them on for a month in a greenhouse, which I will not be. Astonishingly I have already seen some on sale. May is early enough.

Happy Gardening.

Chris Evans
www.dundrynurseries.co.uk
www.thebutterflygarden.org