April, come she will

I walk through the garden and I’m full of anticipation, and this time not for the vague memory of spring, or the photos on my phone, but for real things, soon arriving. The ranunculi, a week? The second round of tulips, two weeks? The wallflowers, the foliage everywhere, the daffodils, the roses.

I’m so relieved to see that Rosa mutabilis, which didn’t make a move until the very end of March, is now making shoots fast. The newly planted perennials are taking off. The alliums preparing for May. I dream of what will come from all the seeds I’ve sown for summer. Flowers. Courgettes and beefy tomatoes. Serrano chillies.

I think this is a poem about my garden:

April, come she will
When streams are ripe and swelled with rain
May, she will stay
Resting in my arms again
June, she’ll change her tune
In restless walks she’ll prowl the night

July, she will fly
And give no warning to her flight
August, die she must
The autumn winds blow chilly and cold
September, I remember
A love once new has now grown old

Yesterday I put a towel on the balcony floor and lay down in front of the door, the only place where that’s possible. Eye to eye with my plants, I discovered an impressive number of aphid exoskeletons on the hellebores. But also…

I felt emotional, warm inside, all this beauty in pots, tulips towering over me. The garden is ripe now; plants are swelling and becoming ever brighter from the rain. The potential they’ve had all winter is unveiled.

In May the romance intensifies. It brings the first roses and wallflowers, alliums and ranunculi. Two new roses will flower for the first time.

June marks a time of transition. With spring behind them, the summer perennials gain height quickly but won’t flower just yet. There’s a restlessness, a feeling of expectation. I am anxious to see what’s coming.

It’s in July they will really fly. I see explosions of fennel and lofty loosestrife. Endless green, growing, climbing, falling.

I find August a bit early for dying, I expect a grand show from the dahlias (eight this year, more than ever!), but the first signs are there. Plants start collapsing under their own growth and suffer from drought.

In September, or for me it’s more in October, remembering what’s been and gone, a sadness that the end is near. A love once new has now grown old. The love is rewarded with the harvest.

During winter I forget what that love was like. I look at previous photos every now and then, feeling only a hint of the excitement those times brought. Until the wait is over and I fall in love all over again in March. April, come she will.

Want to get to know me and my garden? Read this:

A new plan for a wooden crate

This crate went through a lot of phases in 2025. It had a successful time with sweet rocket in May, then an OK geranium-nasturtium combo in June and a bit of July until respectively mildew and aphids took over, ending with a sad phase of one small pink nicotiana with a handful of cosmos flowers and four sunflowers on a tall stick. Problems: I had no plan, started everything late, too dry, not enough space.

I’ve loved the look of red valerian for a while now, and I finally figured out where I want to use it. This is my most difficult container because it’s bone-dry in summer and doesn’t have a lot of space. It’s also the first thing you see when you walk up to the balcony door, and I can see its contents directly from the couch, looking into the hallway. So I want lots of height, flowers, color and fluff.

I recently saw some magnificent fennel in someone’s garden and I wanted to combine the two, together with the blues from the echinops and veronica I already had, some more reddish pink and a bit of warm yellow or orange. So I added cosmos ‘Rubenza,’ wallflower ‘Red Jep’ (for early flowers too), rhodochiton ‘Purple Bells’ and thunbergia alata ‘African Sunset.’ I saw the last two together in a Sarah Raven book and have been wanting to copy it ever since.

I made a really good collage full of copyrighted photos, but here’s a copyright free version to give you an idea (a little less fabulous):

What I’m sowing this month

I’ve sown my second batch of flowers on the 5th of April. Most of these like a temperature of 18 degrees Celcius with lots of light and come up in 1-3 weeks.

• Jewels of Opar

• Pansies! ‘Chianti mixed’, ‘Tiger Eye Red’ and ‘Corinna Terracotta’

• Poppy ‘Lauren’s grape’ (my autumn sown ones have been demolished by slugs)

• Asarina scandens ‘Rose,’ this climber can grow in semi shade

• Cosmos ‘Dazzler’, ‘Rubenza’ and ‘Fandango’ (I really want to see the difference between Dazzler and Fandango)

• Eucalyptus, let’s see how this goes

• Nasturtium ‘Ladybird Rose’ is so pretty, and stays small, I will sow this again in summer so I’ll have it in autumn too

• Californian poppies in orange, pink and ‘Thai Silk Apricot Chiffon’ (what a name)

• Salpiglossis, if you want to grow them too I found this guide extremely helpful because there’s a lot of conflicting information around

I’m behind on veg but I have sown these:

• Chives

• Colorful carrots