March comes in like a lion, and goes out like a lamb

 

‘March comes in like a lion, and goes out like a lamb’, so goes the old saying and, this year, it seems to have held true. It has been a much colder March than last year and, consequently, the Spring activity that I was noting in my blogs last year, has been delayed by about a week. Having said that, the last few days of the month, which have been so warm and sunny, have hastened on a spurt of growth.

The yellow winter aconites, with their Elizabethan ruffs of green, have given way to the glossy yellow petals of the celandines, which seem to be popping up everywhere this year. They prefer damp, shady spaces but, the wet weather that we have had in recent months, has made them migrate to less typical spots, where they hold up their sunny heads to brighten even dreary days. Have you noticed that, after the fragile white snowdrops, the predominant colour of early spring flowers is yellow? I am sure that this is Mother Nature trying to reassure us that the sun will return and that the days will get warmer!

Primroses beside the lake

Quite often we have the warm spell, that we have just enjoyed, in mid-March and the daffodils and primroses fade and wither before the end of the month but, this year, they seem to have flowered for a long time. I can remember a few years ago now, when we still had our smallholding, that I took a week off work in mid-March because we were due to start lambing. The weather was glorious all week and I spent every day up in the fields, keeping an eye on the pregnant ewes and basking in a short-sleeved T-shirt. Needless to say, not a single ewe lambed in that week – they waited until the following week, when I was back at work and the weather had turned cold and wet again! Typical!

I have been for a couple of walks to the lake recently and saw my first deer of the season, but too far away to get a photo for you to enjoy. The skylarks are also up and singing and a couple of mallards are courting on the little Whitelake Stream, flying off indignantly quacking when I inadvertently disturb them as I pass by. Our resident buzzard is seen on a regular basis, often being mobbed by rooks or crows. They, in their turn, are mobbed by our resident gang of Jackdaws if they are deemed to have come too close!

There is a mist of green on the hawthorns and, in sheltered spots, the blackthorn is coming into flower. I am keeping my eye on the elder as it has a nasty habit of coming into flower before I’ve had time to prepare for Elderflower Cordial making, but although it came into leaf a while before anything else, I have a few weeks to wait yet, before the blossoms appear - plenty of time to get in supplies of oranges and lemons.

Today (1^st April) there will be a lot of happy chickens, ducks and geese (and some very relieved owners) as the poultry lockdown, caused by an outbreak of avian flu before Christmas, was lifted last night after 12 weeks. It has caused worry and headaches for a lot of poultry keepers as, although chickens can be housed for a period without it being too detrimental to their health, as long as they have plenty of room and ‘toys’ to stop them getting bored and feather-pecking their fellow prisoners, water fowl, and geese in particular, really struggle in an indoor environment as their diet is mainly fresh grass and they need water to bathe in to keep their feathers in good condition. My remaining two old ladies seemed quite happy to be housed in the large barn with plenty of straw and hay to play in and only looked wistfully out of the gate when the sun shone!

Joy and Ginger enjoying their freedom!

The warmer weather has also brought out the over-wintering butterflies and some truly huge bumble bees, which have been buzzing around my two rosemary bushes that I have in pots outside my front door. One of the plants is a cutting that I took from my friend’s plant down in Cornwall and is subtly different to my other one, which I bought in a garden centre, in that it has darker blue flowers in bigger clusters, and the bees love it! I sat outside the other afternoon, quietly reading, when a Peacock butterfly landed on my shoulder. It was obviously one that had overwintered successfully somewhere, as it was much smaller than the new season ones will be, and looked distinctly tatty around the edges, but we had a nice little chat before she flew off to find some nectar.

Cornish Rosemary

I am still awaiting, with bated breath, the return of our swallows as I understand that they have been spotted in other parts of Somerset. We only had one pair nest here last year, but they did successfully raise three broods – it would be wonderful if some of them made it back this year and re-colonised the garage nest sites. Unfortunately, we still seem to have a large population of Jackdaws, and that will put them off nesting anywhere that is accessible to these corvids, who predate the young and eggs. Much as I love wildlife, I wish that something predated Jackdaws!

The long border

When I arrived at my new clients on Monday it was to be greeted by two large, finished borders! They had managed to get a huge amount of cardboard from somewhere and then Tom had got the bit between his teeth and carried on constructing the beds, in between his farming chores! I must say that I was incredibly relieved as the thought of wheelbarrowing all of that muck and then all of the topsoil was very daunting. I spent the morning transplanting plants from a now-redundant border to the new border and planting some shrubs that had been in pots. There is still a lot of space to fill in the longer border and I haven’t even started on the shorter one yet.

The short(er) border

My Tuesday clients wanted me to transplant their strawberry bed as the existing one will be covered by a new greenhouse that arrives in a few weeks’ time. This year they have decided to switch to raised beds for vegetable growing, as grass kept encroaching on the beds last year – it’s amazing how much more organised the garden looks already. I was allocated one end of a new raised bed (constructed, I am pleased to say, using the ‘no dig’ method) and managed to transfer about two thirds of the plants – the rest we may well plant up in pots next week. I also continued to wage war on a honeysuckle that has become a bit of a thug, smothering two bushes and rooting itself all over the place. Next week I have been told that I can have a bonfire (albeit in an incinerator)!!

Wednesday’s client wanted me to carry on re-structuring her herbaceous border. I started last year and cut back a rampant climbing rose, moved a few things and cut back some other overgrown shrubs. Last time I went I moved most of the shrub roses, leaving some towards the back of the border, and replanting them in a new location where they will have two chances! This week I trimmed an annoying bit of the Choisya that I attacked last year and then cut off some overhanging branches on the two rather elderly Weigelas. Having done that I dug up and split a huge clump of day lilies that was too far forward and another perennial that grows to about six feet high and was in the middle of the border. This has now freed up a swathe in the middle of the border where we can plant some new and colourful perennials. I will shortly have to don my wellies (or waders if it rains again) and get into the stream to plant up the pots anchored in the gabions that were built last year – it’s all very exciting!  Whilst drinking my coffee I walked around the pond, looking for signs of frogspawn, but it was only later when I took a closer look that I spotted tadpoles swimming about already, even though there are still amorous frogs swimming about, too. I also saw some newts but have no idea what sort they are. Last year, when I first started gardening there, it must have been later in the season and I kept coming across tiny frogs everywhere, so I must watch out for them later.

Bookings are also trickling in for farm sits later in the year when, hopefully, people are allowed to go on holiday again and I even have a provisional booking for April 2022!