gardening

[elshajd]

What's happening in your garden?

We have tadpoles, frog spawn, the first butterflies (bright green) and it's all looking very green. Hard to believe we snow on this day last year.

Butterflies and a couple of bumblebees for us today. Oh and a pair of super busy magpies building a nest in a tree next door. I'm not a big fan of magpies but it is fascinating to watch.

Butterfly and ladybirds.

Lots of nest building birds.

No frogs in the small pond we built for a lone frog.

Vineweevil

We have had deer wandering though ours. There are a group of four small ones, females I think and a pair of young males. We also have a 'pet' partridge called Pete.

It's not a partridge it's a pheasant!

Lovely thread

Bees, birds building.
Camellias in bloom.
New growth on roses
Magnolias about to bloom
Tulips, any day now
Sunshine

A cheeky robin who is gathering best material and using my new feeders.
Big fat bumblebees today.
So many seeds being planted!!!

Robins supervising my lawn-mowing
Blackbirds pilfering nesting materials
Some unexpected herb survivors from last year (chives and mint)

We have 1 flowerbed that has a plant each to remind me of friends and family - the hellebores are blooming (my sister's choice), the climbing rose is shooting (my mum's) and there's lots of new self-seeded foxgloves to look forward to (my late husband's).

There's also a new massive hole under the fence so something large has created a new cut-through - choosing to believe badger or fox, mmmkay? Nobody say the word that rhymes with cat...

Lots of birds, daffodils are out too fish are waking up from their winter hibernation too

We've got tulips as of a few days ago.

@MutteringDarklyuttering mint would survive nuking. The bastarding stuff was allowed to how in beds here. It grew everywhere!

Massive lolloping bumble bees!

Ds and I planted some summer flowering bulbs yesterday and has enjoying helping me water the garden in the evening.

I've cut the lawn and weeded and my clematis has lots of buds waiting to flower, plus the roses are looking pretty healthy.

A few bees bobbing about here, and a bright yellow butterfly. Plenty of flowers, and the first veggie seeds went out recently too, so here's hoping for a good growing year.

Magpies are hilarious, grabbing sticks out of our maple tree that are 5 times bigger than the bird and then trying to fly with it in their beak! Gravity soon takes over.

@MutteringDarkly I genuinely thought "why would bats be making a hole in a fence?!"

I mutilated the grass yesterday (too long to be mowed properly, that will be next weeks job) - looking forward to sitting out for a bit today and watching the sparrows.

Forget-me-nots, honesty and comfrey flowering now.

Deer and pheasants I want to live where you live! We have a shoe box of gravel and AstroTurf for a garden (thanks landlord!) but I've ordered a bunch of stuff to try and create a potted garden with the kids. I'm going to try and grow kale, lettuce, chard, tomatoes, herbs, sunflowers, and a few more kid/butterfly friendly flower mixes. I can't wait, I wanted to do it last summer but didn't get my butt in gear in time.

Many weeds.... but the roses I put in last year are getting new leaves and the tulips are getting closer to blooming. I didn’t even know we had any of those in, I think Dfil must have put them in last year.

I have lots of seeds to sow, just need to check when they need to go in. Canterbury Bells are my favourite, hope they take!

A lot of bees! Which is lovely but I went outside to sit in the sun and had to come in because it was making me nervous I guess it’s their garden now.

It's not a partridge it's a pheasant!

That reminds me, next doors pear tree is about to be in full blossom.

I've got a large pot with a pieris on my patio. Most years the frost catches the lovely red bracts but this year its perfect. Other pots have violas, grape hyacinths, small tulips, and narcissi budding up.

I've just been doing a bit of tidying up - assuming the brown bins are being collected this week I want it full.

But I've saved some long dogwood stems - they were encroaching on other plants - as I think I heard them recommended as plant supports on gardeners question time.

Have been spending a lot of time weeding and planting seeds.

We've got bluebells, hyacinths, daffs, tulips, whitebells, Lilly of the valley coming up and rises starting to bloom in some cases.

Delighted that the wild garlic and herb garden I planted last year and thought to be dead has come back.

The honeysuckle is also looking very promising.

Can't wait for the trees to get into full leaf.

No frogspawn which is disappointing.

Oh and bright yellow butterflies and two peacock ones.

I've got lily of the valley coming up too, some encroaching where I don't want it. Im thinking I might try to dig some of that out before it gets bigger and put into pots by the doors or maybe to bring inside.

5 or 6 days ago I sowed rocket just to get some salad quick. It's already up yay . I'm Scandi and we still have night frost, so go rocket .