"April prepares her green traffic light and the world thinks Go."
Christopher Morley
And it’s been all go in the garden this week. We’ve had extra sessions as there is so much to do. The weeds have been growing and slugs have started to appear. We’ve been getting help from the ladybirds though. I counted 23 in the garden on Wednesday.
We had a ton of soil delivered to the garden to fill up our extra containers. We have started to do this, but it’s a long job. Especially as we have acquired so many containers for our ever growing garden.
The weather has been fairly dry for April. So the garden needs a good water. We can only do this about once a week at the moment. And then only when we have enough volunteers. We are looking to get several teams of helpers to water over the summer. And we have the promise of an accessible tap coming shortly which will make things a lot easier.
The bulbs are still flowering well in the garden, the tulips are looking particularly beautiful at the moment. The crab apples are bursting into bud now too. I’ve planted an ivy geranium back into its hanging bag. I took it out last autumn and over wintered it on a window ledge at home, which gave it a head start (see picture at the end of this blog post).
The veg garden has been added to. I was given some Jerusalem artichokes which I sprouted. They have been planted in the garden now. Did you known that they aren’t artichokes at all, it’s just that they were thought to taste of artichokes. In fact they are related to the sunflower. And like the sunflower they grow tall, up to about 3 metres. A theory for the name ‘Jerusalem’ artichoke, is that Italian settlers in the US called the plant ‘girasole’, the Italian word for Sunflower, and this got changed over time to Jerusalem.
I am on the lookout for someone with imagination and secateurs to take on a shrub that needs a bit of topiary. It’s supposed to be a peacock shape and if you look closely enough, it could be. … Do you know anyone who can help?
Don’t forget to join us for our Big Dig Day on Sat 27th April 10am to 2pm. Have a tour of the garden, buy some plants, sow some seeds, join in an activity. No digging required.
The Blooming Old Gardener