Seed and Turf

The weather has been ideal for laying truf and seeding the lawn. It was late in the season when the landscaping was carried out last August and when I seeded the lawn in September I knew that some areas would need attention come Spring. As the weather has been so good this was the obvious time to get to work.

Turfing provides a kind of instant gratification. From patchy, hardened mud the laying of a few lengths of turf transforms the lawn into Wembley Stadium! For the remaining patches I seeded the ground having prepared a seed bed by some vigourous raking.

Talking of seed, I sowed the very first crops in the new vegetable garden sowing Carrots (Autumn Gold) and some mixed salad - Red Russian Kale, Rocket, Chervil, Lizuna and Tatsoi. Then finished off with some Lollo Rosso Lettuce. In 3 inch pots I sowed Tomato 'Gardener's Delight' which went straight in a cold frame.

Interestingly I had some free seed packets I had accumulated in recent months and so these were sown the central round bed. They included Love-in-the-Mist, Bupleurum Rotundifolium, Black Hollyhock and Ammi Majus (Bishops Flower). The Bronze Fennel was sowed in a corner of the main herbaceous bed while in the opposite corner went Linum 'Blue Saphyr'.

After all the work sowing seeds this weekend let's hope they germinate okay!

Creating the round seating area

The design of the garden revolves around the central round border. But the garden is dissected by the main gravel path that cuts through the garden diagonally with the central round border at the very middle. At one end, in the orchard, will be a Summer House. At the other and sat within the gravel parterre of stone and box balls, is the round seating area.

Up until now it has been just a round area of gravel planted around with a circle of box. But now it is complete and thanks to the help of Richard the limestone sets are all expertly laid. Richard laid out the round seating area in our old garden at Linden Barn and we wanted to use his bricklaying skills again here at Ordnance House.

Thanks to Richard the result is exactly what we had hoped for, now the main path feels much more balanced.

This weekend I was also busy planting lots of Scabiosa columbaria in the front garden between the Yew cones we planted some weeks ago. They should do well in this sunny well drained border. I also managed to plant up some pots with Primeroses and Violas and immediately the yellow and blue made the garden sunny and spring-like. In fact the milder, warmer weather and longer days are generating lots of new growth in the garden and green shoots are everywhere. Next week is the Spring equinox with equal days of daylight and night-time hours. But this is the tipping point for thankfully from here on it is lengthening days and warmer temperatures. Cannot wait!

Awaiting Act One

The garden is like a stage awaiting the actors to appear. I know they have arrived as I can see fresh, green leaves throughout the garden but there is that growing anticipation of what is yet to come.

This weekend has been quite lovely. Very mild, temperatures of 15 to 17c, a soft breeze and full sun. You can see the garden responding to the long hours of daylight and warmth.

I love the heads of the Snakes Head Fritillary nodding in the wind. But all over the garden plants are beginning to prepare their entrance stage left.

In the meantime we've been busy preparing beds for a soft fruit garden where we will grow raspberries, blackberries, black and red currents. This is a first for us and something of an experiment for we have never grown soft fruit before. However, I am excited by the prospect.

The new lawns have now settled in over winter and I made the first cut of the year today. The smell of freshly mown grass and the crisp lines in a lawn are both things to treasure at this time of year.

We have also continued with the planting and I prepared two new beds at the side of the house in preparation for a seat that we will eventually place there with a grass path leading to it. The beds have Nepeta mussinii planted in them to create a froth of pale lavender blue flowers from mounds of greyish leaves all summer long.

In the main herbaceous bed I planted Knautia macedonica and lots of Verbena Bonariensis that I have been growing on in cold frames for some months. At the front of the house and in the main bed I added 20 x Digitalis Virtuoso Purple and 6 x Digitalis Giant Spotted.

So, although it has been busy, most of all it has been enjoyable and the promise of the show to come makes it all that much more worthwhile!