Thursday 31st March

Today has been bitterly cold with frequent sleet, snow & hail showers but with bright sunshine between. I took a photo from the top floor to try & give an arial view of the Magic Garden. I hadn’t realised how wide my intersecting paths have got but I am pleased how few areas are bare in my tapestry of plants.

I did some weeding and filled the bird feeders but that was the extent of the outside work today

Ben worked his way round from sitting on the hedgehog house in the sun via the arbour seat ending up sitting in his weeping willow pot willing me to be inside rather than outside. He does watch the birds while he’s in the Magic Garden but in reality is quite scared of many of them especially the blackbirds & not unreasonably the herring gulls that plague us from spring to autumn. One of our blackbirds has got quite friendly and allows me to be quite close in the garden.

Working Wednesday

I spent a long day at work having arrived in sleet and judging by my wildlife tracker camera it rained / sleeted for much of the day. However when I got back home at 7 it was to dry & relatively clear weather. I was pleased to find the solar lights are working even if its difficult to give a good impression of how it looks. The Magic Garden is lit from outside by the security light at the corner to my neighbouring supermarket.

My sweetness are somewhat erratic in their germination and I think that I may need to sow some more. I potted up some foxglove seedlings from the garden yesterday to add the collection of geraniums I have potted up. This evening I have sown some more catmint of Ben and nicotiana

Cold Tuesday

Today has been mainly grey and chilly with some dampness over night but despite this, the feeling of spring is still very much with me. In the Magic Garden there are changes everyday as the perennial plants start putting on growth. Today I was pleased to see that the native hedging bareroot plants are beginning to show signs of coming into leaf as are most of the fruit bushes and the apple trees. The wee hydrangea plant looks happy too. Last year’s osteospermums are beginning to come into bloom too.

Prunus avium Bird Cherry

Blackcurrant Ben More

Foggy Monday

Today was a very long day as I didn’t escape work until gone 7 pm. Even with the clock change it was pushing it a bit to be light when I got home. In fact it was foggy which was a bit surprising as it wasn’t in town - true sea haar. I was instantly cheered up by looking into the Magic Garden & seeing the white daffodils almost glowing in the foggy greyness & the solar lights were coming on.

Mothering Sunday

My Mum used to get upset if we sent her cards that said ‘Mother’s day’ as she insists on what she considers its proper name of Mothering Sunday, the middle Sunday in Lent when you get a day off ‘fasting’. I used face-time today to show her the Magic Garden & she was delighted to see it in the afternoon sunshine with its collection of daffodils and the cat.

I finished moving the fruit bush pots & apples to line down the side of the garden. This has created space on the patio. I have also moved the tiered troughs against the fence. Ben is not impressed as this had become a snoozing spot

I spent lots of time out in the Magic Garden today with some on going maintenance as well as new plantings. I tidied up the Thyme zone clearing the seven stones & checking the thymes. I have replaced two and suspect I will need to replace 2 of the others but time will show if the tidied up plants can come again. I need to put fresh stone chips down round the sundial. I weeded out around the sundial and as far out as the first pentagon of lights.

In the back corner I planted some bare-root perennials today - I’m really pleased with how this corner is coming together.

Spring Saturday

Today has been a beautiful sunny day, if not terribly warm. I spent a lot of the afternoon in the Magic Garden and Ben spent most of his day out with me. I sowed broad beans (dwarf Sutton) in front of the curly kale and covered them to hopefully stop them being dug out by Ben or others. I moved most of the fruit in pots along the side of the garden to start creating some space on the patio.

Ben has enjoyed the sunshine. I did go for a longish walk but otherwise it has been a day at home. I never seem to have enough time to do all I want though or get all the plants into the garden or the seeds sown. It was rather wonderful to have my washing dry on the line today - it will smell of fresh air and spring

The sun has made my pulsatilla open out and the bumble bees seemed to be particularly attracted to it. I think I will have to get more of these as it has really cheered up the little ‘rock’ garden for spring.

Friday 25th March

Being back at work meant that I left home in spring sunshine shortly before 6.30 am and came home as it was going down at 6.30 pm. I walk a mile & a half to the metro past some lovely gardens, some scruffy spaces and in amongst the local trees some lovely daffodils.

As I came in and Ben met me on the drive, a wren told us off very thoroughly. It took me a moment to find it but the silhouette is very distinctive. Ben was a little disconcerted that I was more interested in photographing the wren than immediately letting him into the house & getting his tea.

On the way home I was thinking about tasks for the weekend. I need to make a decision about painting the fence. So far I have not done much about securing the climbers except for this rose. I have forgotten what it is called but it is reasonably vigorous & produces lovely pink roses from June to December. I’ve pruned it harder than usual & tied in to produce horizontal stems which encourages flowering.

Last day of annual leave

Today is my last annual leave day and having met a friend for coffee and cake & catching up with tasks, I spent a couple of hours in the Magic Garden planting things out & weeding with some time spent just enjoying being out. Ben wasn’t impressed with my efforts and spent most of his day in the front garden.

I planted the alpine primula and the pulsatilla in the alpine bed between the summerhouse and the pond. This is the spoil from when I dug out the pond and is solid clay at its core but is covered in specialist alpine compost and grit. I’m pleased by the number of daffodils that have survived along the fence and the survival of the shrubs in front.

I planted out two distinct forms of lavender - augustifolia (English) & stoechas (French) along the five lines extending from the inner pentagonal planting. In this main planting area I also planted out the sea hollies and lupins that have been waiting in the cold frame. A further heuchera went into the catnip patch too.

I always water in new plants but today I was giving a soaking to other plants including the pots as it has been dry for the last week and more. Its odd to be thinking of using the hosepipe in March but I may well need to give the Magic Garden a soaking this weekend.

Wednesday in the Sun

I had today off & was blessed with sunshine. After months of ignoring it, I spent the morning tidying up the border that is the front garden & clearing the leaves from the footpath. In November 2020 I planted a large number of daffodils & other bulbs in both the front border and the Magic Garden & it always makes this time of year special with the sheer number of them in flower.

I saw my first ladybirds of the year today too

On the other side of the bamboo, in Ben’s catnip patch, I planted out the Epimedium grandifloras ‘Bandit’ - I’m not totally convinced that it is that but time will show especially if it flowers! I also planted the pulmonaria ‘blue ensign’ & to Ben’s delight, two Nepeta Persian Blue. I’ve not covered them completely (yet) but hope I will manage to stop him killing them with love!

I then planted out this year’s first curly kale (Reflex F1) plants. Last year’s are going to seed now but have provided greens throughout the winter. This wee bed has tended in the past to get completely overshadowed in the summer but I think will get more light this year. I then covered them with mesh mainly to protect them against the pigeons.

Back to the Magic Garden

I’m back in Newcastle tonight with Ben after a rather long day in the car. I was fortunate to have an easy drive down but it was still rather special to be able to come back to sit in the Magic Garden with Ben. It was a little chilly but the sun was out as are the majority of my daffodils now. The white ones are my favourite.

I was relieved to find that Ben hasn’t totally finished off the catnip plants although his favourite pair are looking a bit sad. I was also pleased to find my seedlings upstairs are looking healthy & I’m going to be able to prick out the rudbeckia this weekend. The seeds downstairs are just germinating but also look okay despite my absence. I need to do some gentle watering tonight but I have had less casualties than I expected.

I planted out a new erysimum bowles mauve as part of the continual regeneration of the Magic Garden and the heuchera joined the others at the back of the garden. I did quite a lot of pulling out of weeds while I was out there remembering that its our first garden waste collection this coming weekend

Rudbeckia Marmalade

I’m looking forward to a good sleep tonight and then I intend being in the garden for as much of tomorrow as possible & so far the weather forecast is good!

Home (3)

Today is my last day at home and again it has been sunny and bright although there had been a hard frost overnight and temperatures remained lower than yesterday. I have rather worn my mother out so we had a mainly quiet day so I took the opportunity to decide with her where to plant the alpines that she bought at the Garden Cottage Nursery on Saturday. She has a small rockery which is really just the natural stones built up into a bank away form the patio as the garden slopes upwards and away. It was a little challenging creating planting holes for these new plants and the lavender I brought from Newcastle for Mum. I will be particularly interested to see how the dwarf curry plant does as I quite like the idea of using these as edging plants.

Dwarf curry plant

Lemon thyme ‘Silver Queen’

Saxafrage Monarch

Dianthus fusilier

Saxifrage ardensii Alpino Early Picotee

Sedum spathulifolium Cape Blanco

Once I had planted these out for Mum and watered her seedlings and the cuttings in the greenhouse for her, I took the opportunity to take some cuttings from one of the buddleja globosa - the yellow ball tree. Mum had taken these as cuttings years ago and says they strike easily - we shall see!

Home (2)

I have been incredibly lucky with the weather staying up here in NW Scotland but of course that means I’m worrying a bit about my baby plants and seedlings back home - I hope my system of capillary matting has kept them alive. I’m missing Ben-cat too although I’ve spied on him on the video doorbell cam. This lovely weather has meant I’ve been out & about & even sat in the garden.

Down in front of the house is.a a large heather & juniper bed. My father deliberately chose heathers to try & give all year round colour. He had it divided up by prostrate juniper creating the impression of water flowing.

The heather provides important sustenance for the earliest of the bumblebees to appear although there were more on the native coltsfoot.

Round the side of the house & in front of the garage is the vegetable plot with its old plum tree and large blueberry bush. I’m always impressed how the large cold frames have survived the harshest of weather here.

My Birthday

Today’s my birthday and it has to be one of the most gloriously sunny & warm ones I can remember. I drove Mum up the coast to the Garden Cottage Nursery at Tournaig and selected some plants to mark the occasion. I have a love of meconopsis poppies and will put them in with the blueberries to enjoy the acid soil.

Meconopsis Baileyi Alba

Heuchera Solar Eclipse

Alpine aquilegia x 2

Meconopsis napulensis

Pulsatilla

Mum’s collection of alpines

Meconopsis Lingholm

an alpine primula

Today was the first bumblebee picture of the year too & it was enjoying the pussy willows. The sky really was that blue! I made my day entirely by visiting Red Point and going to my favourite beaches.

'Home' (1)

I’m spending a long weekend with my mother in Badachro in the NW Highlands. The garden here has developed over the last quarter of a century from when Mum & Dad moved in. The first thing they did was to plant over 100 trees to try and create a bit of shelter. The resulting garden at the back has three main areas merging into each other - the bottom is where Mum has an alpine bed, the bird table and the pond as main features; the middle layer has perennials and shrubs leading up into what becomes the woodland garden.

Bottom level back garden

Middle level back garden

Middle level back garden

Woodland garden

There are two glorious lenten roses which are at their best at the moment in the perennials. I love their hanging heads & particularly like the deep ruby version.

The frogs are still cavorting in the pond with lots of frog spawn already. I spotted some newts today too but didn’t catch them on camera

The mahonia is a survivor - the deer almost destroyed the original plant. Once its head had been chopped of it has re-sprouted and is now rewarding with flowers. The other is hidden away in the wild patch.

St Gertrude’s Day

St Gertrude is the patron saint of gardening and cats so is I suppose the patron saint of Ben’s Magic Garden. I’ve come home for a long weekend so am worrying about the Magic Garden and my seedlings & baby plants already. I hate being away at this time of year but have promised myself a trip to a local plant nursery to compensate in advance from any losses incurred through my absence!

I can still plan for the future & I would love to have some erythroniums & more pulmonaria

Pulmonaria ‘Mawson’s Blue’

Plants for Free

Tidying up the Magic Garden yesterday I found several welcome progeny of plants. I took some wee ‘cuttings’ and potted up other youngsters that were not quite where I’d want them. I hope the achillea will take. I will probably give away some of the dusky cranesbill as I do have rather a lot of it in the Magic Garden already. I will try and establish a patch in the front garden too although strangely its never done as well out there.

Its been tipping down with rain today so it was almost okay to spend the day at work. At this time of year I get itchy fingers wanting to get outside as much as possible. Ben is perhaps beginning to agree with this as he was determined to go and sit in the arbour seat & watch the rain this evening. I sat with him for a bit hoping to do a bit of moon worshipping as it is a Full moon by tomorrow morning.

Busy Tuesday

Its been mild and occasionally sunny today. I was so engrossed in working in the Magic Garden this morning that I nearly forgot to go to a hospital appointment. My Magic Garden is one of the key components to keeping me well, that with photographing it and being with Ben-cat. Today, amongst other tasks, I was planting out some more of the perennials that I’m using to fill up any gap I can find. Today’s mainly went into the western quarter of the Magic Garden’s centre.

Penestemon Dakota burgandy

Campanula persicifolia caerula

The ranunculus however has gone under where the asters will come up. Its yellow flowers will stand out against its wonderful deep coloured leaves & I love the fresh green of its stems. I think I will try and find another of these for under the hazel arch.

Ranunculus Brazen Hussy

Salvia ‘caradonna pink inspiration’

More of the daffodils are coming out into full bloom now including the yellow ones with orange trumpets & the earliest of my white ones

Ben has become overly enthusiastic about the latest additions to his catnip collection so this afternoon after this demonstration of love I have now put some protection in place - suspect I will have to buy a replacement white-flowered Nepeta before long though! Still, the 50 pence heucheras might survive.

Working Monday

Another sunny day outside while I was working. At least the mornings are getting light now but the evenings are still dark by the time I’m leaving work again. Its pretty mild here and I think the season may be slightly in advance of last year. Its strange now to look at a photograph from a year ago today and to see how the old fence looked with its curtain of greenery. The arbour seat looks less worn too - I shall need to get a new set of prayer flags out & perhaps a replacement solar star mobile.

Ben was a little less inclined to go out than a year ago perhaps because his archenemy the blackbird was in full possession of the fence.

A Bit More Planting Out!

Another day which improved into sunshine this afternoon & I spent the afternoon in the Magic Garden. I planted out the echinacea into the border in front of the fence & the six foxgloves that I reared last autumn & another of the catnip plants - this one is a white flowered one.

Echinacea is used by herbalists to boost immunity & is often used to try and shorten the symptoms of colds & coughs. In the Magic Garden they are to attract more pollinators.

Ben is liable to over love the original catnip plants & burrows his face into it. I will keep an eye to see if it will need protection from him to survive.

Heuchera

I have had a busy time in the Magic Garden today planting out some of the heuchera that I have been amassing before they take over the dining room floor.

Heuchera ‘Timeless Night PBR’

Heuchera ‘Charlotte’

Heuchera ‘Red Lightening’

Heuchera ‘Walnut’

Heuchera ‘Tapestry’

Heuchera ‘Peachberry Ice’

Heuchera ‘Frilly Lizzy’

I’m not sure Ben is entirely happy with my planting them out in the corner where I’m making the new beds & where the majority of the catnip is planted.