More herbs will be grown this year. Need plenty of sage and basil also chives as they are well-liked. More mint aswell. 

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Some Old English Customs:

• Eating sage every day in May will grant immortality


• A woman who ate sage cooked in wine would never be able to conceive


• Where sage grows well in the garden, the wife wears the trousers

There you have it Art.

A few years back I found particularly fragrant strain of spearmint in Waitrose I think might have been one of the sought after Moroccan strains that one of their growers cultivated. It still thrives. I love Black Peppermint too as a tisane.

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I have placed five of the most recent containers in my shed to protect the plant from any ice and snow for the next few days.

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Optimistic Art. My cannas and dahlias have been in the shed all winter more to stop them becoming waterlogged.  The neighbours leave their dahlias in the ground and have got a way with it since 2014 even with the so called beast a few years ago. It's a risk I won't take though.

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More clumps of snowdrops flowering than I thought we had. I think maybe I've disturbed bulbs during autumn clearing of the woodland bank and spread them about a bit.

Nice drop of sunshine in the Itchen Valley today- crocuses just trying to open their eyes. I've only got orange ones out at the moment.

Mahonia smells beautiful and actually the gorse flowers have got that coconut scent that you normally get on warm spring days.

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Having been outside earlier, chopping away some brambles, I noticed an unusual splash of colour at the edge of the lawn, an area underneath the spreading branches of my neighbour's Scots pine and hazel trees...

Sweet violet, I think, having looked online - usually found in road verges and woodlands. (Goodness knows where they've come from, but it was nice to see them regardless!)

EDIT: I went out and snfifed them. They have quite a pong which, disappointingly, doesn't smell much like those parma violet sweets (which are a favourite of mine - I love the smell of them). I guess, no surprise really, that Swizzels use fake violet flavouring in them!

 

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One of my Ceanthus/Californian Lilacs is in a right state with browned leaves. Pretty sure it must have been the heavy snowfalls combined with no wind which meant it was weighed down with snow for days. Didn't even happen in 2018, but the wind may have helped keep deep snow off it then. Not sure whether it will recover? Also have a waxy green evergreen plant with yellow edges , not sure the name , all wilted, probably same reason. 

Some pictures, any advice? 

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My peach tree has buds and flowers and is looking good. I hope to have more than one fruit this year. No doubt the cold weather will see it off.

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I found a large roll of 'leaky pipe' https://www.leakypipe.co.uk/ from my horticultural days so a task for this weekend is to unroll it and fit it around two borders that otherwise receive overhead watering. With a mulch it should save me water on the meter too if I'm not forgetful about turning on and off. Just need to get two hose connectors and stops.

If that's not a recipe for a wet summer I don't know what is. There again from a selfish angle if a wet summer reduces the masses from descending on Dorset this year maybe that's a plus after last years incredible inward mass migration and congestion from dawn to dusk. 

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My crocuses are now full in bloom. I have photographed them with my android phone.

 

Hello, please can you help me as I have forgotten how to download photos on this site.

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There are quite a few TWO posters who will be interested in the following nhbs piece:
Author Interview with Dave Goulson: Gardening for Bumblebees
https://www.nhbs.com/blog/dave-goulson-gardening-for-bumblebees

Enjoy.
Roger

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That's an interesting site generally Roger

Back to gardening or more truthfully the prospects for the sloe harvest later. The other day I noticed that there are many blackthorn still in bud even this far south in Dorset. Remarkable for April.

Certainly a Blackthorn Winter as I type this. I hope this snap doesn't turn into a spell.

The worst of both worlds when you have to water pots at this time of year because of the dry and the plants are wilting and it's well below freezing at night. 

Nick

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Glad you found it of interest, Nick. The weather has been a bit uncooperative - we've been having our old garden wall rebuilt/pointed with lime mortar and frost is not what we want just now! I think it has gone off OK - but what can you do? The mason/flower bees will be impressed with that decision! Next task - painting of the old school railings!
Roger

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I noticed bumble bees out and about today despite air temperature high only 8C briefly.
Winds were lighter so must have been enough for them to keep warm enough to fly.

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Bedding plants - buy now and spend the next fortnight watering or buy later and find the best choice has gone?

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I find the weather less helpful to gardening in recent years. "Changeable" was good with short spells of rain and showers followed by warmth. Any particular weather type seems stuck for weeks. In recent years I seem to be gardening for a six month cool wet season followed by a six month hot and dry season. After often record breaking rainfall from October to February which ended last year's drought here (I somehow managed to miss every single summer downpour despite others within a few miles getting lucky several times!) the drought has begun with virtually no rain for six weeks and a very drying constant breeze with low dew points. Throw in below average temperatures and it's about as bad as it can get for growing.

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I must admit most bedding plants don't really pot my compost- many seem to do little to bring the wildlife in so we've more or less done with them, other than native British types like primroses. This time of year the woodland bank in our garden, a mix of spring bulbs and native annuals & perennials like cowslips, with a sprinkling of pulmonaria, festoons us with bees, bee flies and hoverflies every time the sun comes out.

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I'd rather grow from seed than use bedding, as indeed I used to, but time and space no longer permit

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Good afternoon folks. Had a gift card of £15 to spend in Hillier garden center. A Rosebush, Mixed geraniums, and tomato plants were purchased. Along with TWO bags of 50 ltr of container and basket compost.  All plants will be placed in the shed overnight.

Some extra funds got paid out at the tills.

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6 Strawberry plants added this morning. Purchased from the local CO-OP. Not far to travel....

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Bone dry. Dust in the lawn.

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I've hardly had to cut the grass this spring. Good growing weather involves a moist soft wind from the SW or South and we haven't had any this spring so far.

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Anybody enjoying Monty's latest Gardeners' World? Loving it ourselves.

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We planted some courgette and cucumber seeds at the start of the month, in peat pots on the windowsill. They quickly germinated and got to the four leaf stage looking really healthy, but over the last week or so they have gone brown and withered and looks like none will survive. Any ideas? I wonder if they might have got too wet and some point.

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Three more bags of compost purchased this morning. Plant labels have been cleaned. Soon be better weather for planting and sowing as long as there are no frosts.

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