2022 January to April

HIGHER MORWELL GARDEN DIARY 2022

30th January

These pages are a rolling diary of the changes and events in the garden for the year 2022 in words and pictures.

January to April

Our first successful brussels sprouts, great abundance of the marvellous vegetables on the plants. However the slugs did have a field day with them late summer and autumn 2021 and there are hardly any leaves left apart from the tops which have grown in winter. We will go back to watering anti- slug nematodes into the veg beds around mid-March, it does seem to make a difference. We’ll put them down in the polytunnel too, left is one of our parsnips pulled up on 9th January and measuring 42cms, 16½ inches for those who prefer their parsnips measured imperially. The raised bed in the polytunnel has been very successful with root crops.

31st January and snowdrops are flowering around the garden, these planted by Lesley in 2016 are underneath the copper beech tree. We haven’t had any prolonged cold yet this winter, it will surely come. Also it has been unseasonably dry, not so bad for gardening, and we’ve started getting the growing beds ready for the 2022 season of outdoor vegetables. We’ve just finished the last of the 2021 crop of Anya potatoes, they kept very well.

Earlier this year than 2021, 10th February and two clumps of frog spawn have appeared overnight in the lower pond. Strange though that we have yet to see a frog in either pond, maybe because there is still little cover for them until the plants grow a bit more. 11th February make that three clumps.

4th March, the apple tree doesn’t seem to ever grow much, probably because the deer keep pulling off the branches when in leaf. However, around the base are the crocuses which used to be in the pot with the tree in Warwick days, and the crocuses have done rather better while spreading out a bit.

18th March, the ribes is putting on a great display this year next to the road. It was rescued from under the sickly cypress trees, where the pond now is, several years back and has spread out sideways and upwards. It is usually the first shrub in the garden to flower in Spring.

Also 18th March, the tadpoles are free of the frog spawn at last and swimming everywhere in the lower pond. Might be seen as messing with nature but we’ll probably move some to the upper pond which has none and there’s a lot of blanket weed for them to eat. Please!

RSPB emails gave me the idea of making a nesting box specifically to suit robins, they like a large letter-box entry shape rather than a hole. The vine will grow over it for some protection. The older box is now always populated with nuthatches, the tits don’t get a look-in any more.

The patch of fritillaries under the big old spreading prunus are establishing well now the rabbits leave them alone, still more to flower in this picture taken 24th March.

We tried some different ideas for hedging directly underneath the big cypress trees at the top (east) of the garden, the little berberis have taken a while but are growing and showing lovely flowers this year, seen 30th March.

The daffodils on the roadside have been spectacular this year, but then so have the dandelions all seen left 30th March. Right, the two erythroniums around the Grayswood Ghost Birch take the eye from the damage inflicted on the white bark by an unwelcome visit from the deer, 14th April.

Above is the new yellow rhododendron we planted a while ago. Seen on 27th April, yellow seems to be spelt P-I-N-K but we have hopes it will change albeit slowly. Left, more copious blossom from the big pink azalea and behind prunus Shogetsu on 25th April. A little oddity in the garden though, there are a small number of trees which have shown almost no blossom at all this year for no reason we can think of. It has been very dry since mid-March but for well-established trees and shrubs that seems an unlikely cause.

Left is 25th April, right is 28th. Very sadly for us the bees have been taken away after four years. Only one of the three remaining hives was thriving and our beekeepers felt the damp conditions in this part of the garden were just too bad to keep going. We’ll miss seeing them around and about.