Spring has Arrived

I have had a busy week, at last the sun has been shining after so many days of cold wind and dry weather. We have had our first rain so this has brought the garden into bloom, all the daffodils, cowslips and grape hyacinths are in flower and the tulips are now in bud.

Daffodils in the Artful garden

Cowslips, primula, grape hyacinths in my garden at home

I have been busy clearing the flower beds of the dead foliage from last year, hopefully we should not get many more frosts that can damage the new shoots. In the Eden Valley we can still get frosts until the end of May. I planted my spuds on Monday after having them chitting on the window ledge for about 4 weeks. I transported them on the car parcel shelf and when I lifted the boot up some of the potatoes rolled out of the egg boxes. So my potato identification will not be an exact science. There were lots of barrow loads of stones to remove from the 4 plot rotation I am using in the Artful Garden. Luckily I can dump the stones in the cow field next to the garden, it stops the cows slipping on the mud when they drink from the water trough.The varieties I have planted are First Earlies -' Epicure', 'Foremost' and 'Swift' and a Second Early 'Shetland Black.' I tried to get 'Lady Crystl' which gave an excellent yield last year, but non were available at the garden centre. This was due to poor weather last year and also the potato growers do not like to open their shed doors too frequently in cold weather. I have decided to plant the escapee potatoes in pots as an experiment.

I have Autumn raspberries so I have pruned these right down to the ground and applied a liberal amount of cow muck, of which there is a regular supply on the farm.

I have planted lots of seeds in my greenhouse both flowers and vegetables. Last year I grew a lot of everlasting flowers, Helicrysum 'Forever' and 'Double Mix' and  Statice 'Art Shades' and 'Forever.'
To dry the flowers you put them in bunches fastened tightly with string so that the bunches hold together when the stems dry. Hang on a curtain rail in a light airy room away from direct sunlight which will cause the flowers to fade. I also picked some buttercups and dried them by the same method. All the flowers should retain their strong colours if protected from direct sunlight.

Close up of the flower garland

I created the garland by tying florist wire across a beam fastened onto a cup hook at each end. I them made small bunches of mixed flowers which I tied together with natural raffia and then tied the bunches onto the wire overlapping them slightly so there were no gaps. It was amazing how many flowers I needed for a 3.5 metre garland the length of the beam in my kitchen.

The flower garland

Now the wild winds have returned and demolished most of my Easter display. I had moved Looby Loo before we had the strong wind that blew the chicken out of the basket and several Easter bonnets were scattered across the garden. Sitting on the garden roller in the orchard is one of her favourite places as she can see people walking past with their dogs or those whizzing by on their bikes on the C2C.

Looby Loo sitting on the garden roller in the orchard