Well, it feels like the garden is finally starting to wake up, after a long cold spring! Big news here is the very first rose. It’s the lonely-only at the moment, so it gets star billing for its solo turn:
My nail-biting decision to turn the pump back on in the fountain has been a good one, I think. The water is definitely clearer and cleaner. But I came down one morning to find that the water level had abruptly sunk down by almost two feet! I think what happened is that as the algae cleared, the jets started shooting higher without my realising it, and shot the water out of the pond overnight. I refilled it with water from the stream (never the mains, as the chlorine would be bad for the critters!) and now all is good in the hood once more… added benefit of more new clean water…and while the water level was low, I was able to get in there and mess about with the pump, finally found the thingum-jiggy that makes the fountain jets play lower. Wet to the shoulder, but I got my result!
And, importantly, my cherished toad-poles seem happy. They’ve attached themselves to the sides of the pond and diligently up hoovering all the lovely slime.
Everything is growing at speed now. All the summer bedding for the containers up by the factory have been potted up and are ready to pop in when the tulips go over.
Dahlias are sprouting in the domes, ready for June….
and the strawberry flowers clearly HAVE been pollinated, because I’m starting to see green strawberries! I was worried that I’d have to get up and personal with the strawberry flowers, using a paint brush, as they were inside the domes, but leaving the windows open seems to have done the trick. Good old pollinators have found their way in. (#TeamPollinators!)
And speaking of pollinators, the flowers that I’m most excited about at the moment are these – can you identify them?
Did you guess right? They’re BLUEBERRIES! Who knew? I never quite knew what blueberries looked like outside a plastic flat pack – but here they are, and they’re gorgeous!
And the bees love them all right…This picture makes me so happy! It’s No-Mow May, in honour of our pollinators, so leave a corner of your garden to grow wild, and put in flowers for the bees – cherish your ecosystem, and it will cherish you right back!
Hope you’re getting out into the sunshine –
Hugs from the garden!
Shann.x
