End of the month view – April 2012
I will remember April 2012 as the month when drought was officially declared in much of southern England. On that day it began to rain and I think it has rained on almost every day since that announcement. What irony.
While I may be sick and tired of rain the garden revels in it. My soil is light and can absorb any amount of water without becoming waterlogged. Bare soil is fast disappearing as the plants grow.
Borders filling out
I have tidied up the small rock garden – essential if it is not to become overgrown.
Rock garden
Behind it is a raised bed with some blocks of Tufa in which are planted Sempervivums and tiny Ferns. I emptied the bed this year, added fresh soil and gravel and replanted. The bed had been rather neglected so now I have space for some small alpine plants.
Raised bed
My Amelanchier is flowering for the first time. I chose this variety because it has an upright habit and should not grow too big. It replaced a very old Pyracantha which I was sorry to lose. The foliage is supposed to have good autumn colour followed by black berries that are attractive to birds.
Amelanchier alnifolia 'Obelisk'
Amelanchier alnifolia 'Obelisk'
Unfortunately we did have a frost early in the month which caught the buds on my Wisteria. Sadly we will only get few flowers this year. Here you can see one live bud surrounded by brown crispy ones!
Wisteria
Luckily no other plants were affected by the frost so if I turn my head away from the Wisteria I can see lots of colour other than brown. The first hardy Geraniums have started to flower – Geranium phaeum, reliable as always.
Geranium phaeum
More showy are the Bleeding hearts……
Dicentra spectabilis
though this one has bled out :-)
Dicentra spectabilis 'Alba'
One advantage of all the rain is that the pond is full. We gardeners must always look for the silver lining.
The pond
Visit the Patient Gardener to see more end of the month views from other bloggers.
8 comments
We too have a happily full pond!
The plants must be singing and you too with the arrival of the wet stuff. I remember the 1976 drought and if I recall the appointment of a Minister for Drought had the desired effect. I like your new alemanchier and the pond looks absolutely stunning :)
Thanks for joining in this month. I have an Amelanchier but its flowers appear mainly before the leaves are out so it must be a different variety to yours but I can say that the Autumn colour is great
I do like your columnar Amelanchier. The Geranium phaeum is pretty too, it’s on my wishlist to add one of these to our other hardy geraniums; there was a magazine article recently with quite a range of different shades, I must dig that out.
The deluge has been appreciated by plants to the full though not the gardeners. Had to google Amelanchier – a wonderful specimen with a plus for wildlife
A beautiful Amelanchier, one of my favourite trees. It’s sad when the frost gets the buds of a much anticipated bloom, having to wait a whole year for another crack at the whip but that’s gardening for you!!
Your bleeding hearts and pond are lovely. I, too, like when everything fills in the bare spots. The garden looks more like a garden.
I didn’t think I had room for an Amelanchier, although I admire them, but I want more Autumn colour and your upright variety would fit in quite well along one of my fences. So thanks for the idea! Your pond looks great and I really like the shape of it.
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