Moving from Winter to Spring

I love Hellebore season, they are such beautiful flowers with so many variations and flowering for weeks.

As always I am running behind with keeping up with my blogging, even more so at the moment. I won't deny the past couple of months have been a struggle, winter always is but this January to March has been more challenging with all the farm sale stress and the uncertainty of what impact that will have on our amazing business here at Quercus and various other things bubbling in the back ground. I often don't realise just how bad the depression has been until I start coming out the other side. As the days lengthen and warm up, I can feel my mood changing, slowly, slowly, but every week there is a little improvement. This week I have committed to getting my eating back into some sort of healthy and have started exercising again, I know I will feel so much better for it. But on with gardening and plants for now and enjoying the warmer spring days. 

Two weeks ago I finished off spring cleaning the herb garden on Wednesday which Isobel started the week before. Borders tidied, top dressed with compost, bricks swept, pots of mint fed and top dressed, another garden finished. Its interesting to see how good some of the herbs look, especially the thymes, because we have had such a mild winter. They are much further on than usual at this time of year.

I love our tall plant supports which will hold up the runner beans and hop. They are from Plant Supports (UK) Ltd where all our plants supports come from, great quality and British made.

This is the first chance in two weeks I've had to paint!

An abstract mountain scene at sunrise using three colours and a bank card!

Prussina blue, Cadmium yellow and Paynes Grey

Thursday and we were on it and got the last of the nursery gardens tidied for spring. Sam and I got the railway garden done and Rory worked through all the borders on the top terrace, putting on the last of the bark and top dressing some of the borders with our own compost. Teamwork Great to get the gardens finished and now we can move onto focusing on propagation – sowing seeds and potting cuttings of which there is plenty to do.

I am really pleased with these self selected seedlings I've been growing on from my own hellebores. The double one is lovely and the single is a nice dark. Hopefully I will get seedlings from them over the next few years.

Now our attention turns to planning and planting as spring beckons. Trees are one of the biggest (size and price tag) plants that we will add to our garden so its vital to make the right decision. If you have a small garden and only have room for one tree, plant one that has several seasons of interest (blossom, stem colour, autumn leaf colour). Here are some of my tree recommendations in my blog Trees for small Gardens

We have a great selection of trees in stock, all of which are listed on our website on the tree and shrub page. Happy reading

Maisie is fascinated by the cows and sheep on the TV

Poppy Fields

Plants in the herb garden

Plants in the Railway garden

Loch and mountains in 3 colours, Paynes grey, orange and Cobolt blue

Monday was spent in the polytunnel which looks so empty after Sam and Rory moved all the plants that were propagated last year into the farm tunnel we have a loan of. They will get potted up from there and go over to the nursery over the summer. Meanwhile I worked through the last of the alpines, propagating, tidying and sorting with some batches going over to the nursery to go into the sales area. The rain in the afternoon was torrential to the point I had to switch my podcast off as I couldn't hear it over the rain hitting the polytunnel! I got the alpines finished, yay which means another 30 odd trays worked through today. Next week it will be the herbs turn.

We didn't go far on our day off last Tuesday but we did take Maisie to a dog field where we could let her off the lead and she could run around and do some training. She had a great time and didn't even get tired! Lunch at the Crown in Biggar before heading home. Maisie was still raring to go so I took her up in to the cottage garden where she was chasing fir cones! Alpine troughs at the back door are filling up with spring colour and the birdies are singing loudly.

Maisie having fun

Corydalis malkensis

Primula vulgaris

Birch bark in the woods

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