Passionate About Plants What Happened to Spring!!

Paul bemoans the lack of a decent Spring and the affect it has had on the garden

I think I must have blinked and missed spring

All the spring blossoms came at once this year after the long winter and in the same week Summer arrived with numerous shrubs flowering early. What does Mother Nature know that we don't? Are we in for a dry hot Summer so that all the growing has to be done very early and quickly or are we in for a wet cold summer so the plants have flowered early. Either way it does not bode well for us poor gardeners.

Our vegetable seeds sown early May have taken an age to germinate due to the dry April and May and if the year continues to stay this dry we can kiss goodbye to many of our food crops. Many years ago a very knowledgeable friend, who I remember with fond affection told me that Mother Nature always rectifies itself 'If we have a dry time boy it will surely be followed by a wet time as nature always balances itself out'. This old gentleman I am sure many of the readers will remember his name was Jim Speed.

I have recently been delivering plants to a good friend in Yorkshire and somehow the topic of conversation got round to the subject of gardening proverbs, where he offered this old Yorkshire proverb 'A dog a wife a walnut tree: the more you beat them the better they be'. He then added that he thought it a little misleading as his walnut tree showed little improvement after a good thrashing.

The 'In plant'

This last weekend I spent at Glenwhan Gardens in Scotland where the owner was amazed at the size of my Hosta's! She gazed in amazement at the lack of slug and snail damage so I just had to let her into the secret of growing good Hosta's. There is only one sure way of keeping them free of damage and that is to treat them liberally with slug pellets when they first start to emerge. Small slugs and snails can cause minute holes in the emerging shoots prior to the leaf expanding. As the leaf expands these holes get larger with the increase in size of the leaf. The early application of slug pellets should stop this occurrence it is always useful to give a second application 4 to 6 weeks later. We have some cracking plants for sale at the nursery.

Hedge trimming tip!

A garden is a place of discovery, an opening to spiritual experiences and one of the few places left in our modern world where we can be totally ourselves. However there is nothing spiritual about hedge trimming, so keep your clothes on and always use a residual circuit breaker.

Whoever said that to be happy for an hour you should get drunk, but to be happy for a lifetime, plant a garden missed an obvious opportunity: to get drunk and plant a garden. My advice is to take a week off work and begin to put your dreams into action. Especially if like me it's your birthday this month and you will be receiving a slew of gardening related gifts. So celebrate by heading off to the pub, proudly wearing your I would rather be gardening T shirt. Remember A well balanced diet is a pint in each hand.

June is sale time at Quaymount.

Quaymount Gardening Services.

We offer a planting and general gardening service, and will also tidy up your garden. Please phone for a quote.

A Very Happy Gardening.

Quaymount Nurseries

Wereham

01366 500691.

Paul Markwell