The Good, Bad and the Worrying at Veddw Garden in Spring.

Spring is always hailed as a joy for gardeners and almost every gardener online shows us delightful springing plants in the pleasant sunshine and we all go ‘ahhhh’. So you may go ‘ahhh’ at some of Veddw’s spring flowers. But it seems almost all my ‘ahhhs’ are accompanied by some anxiety, a loss, or a sinking feeling about some job needing urgent attention.

I do love this sea of Euphorbia griffithii - Fireglow, I think. But a couple of years ago I added some Allium Purple Sensation, and although there was a rather modest amount of allium, I did think it was a sensation.

So last autumn I asked Angus to plant some more. And this year all the euphorbia are flowering their hearts out - a month before I can expect the allium. Who said they could do that!???? Will the whole drama turn into a damp squib? Sigh.

I also wince every year when a pale pink clematis heaves into the background, making a rather unpleasant colour combination.

And a job needing attention? Well, I love seeing new fresh ferns:

But hmm.. this year there’s still a little tidying up required before there’s much pleasure: (we should have cut down all our ferns a little earlier than this)

And then something has been chomping my hostas, big time!

Snails? Or maybe a crow! Charles got an outside camera for Christmas, so he set it up to have a look. Though perhaps snails move too slowly to set it off. However:

DAMMIT! Who knew?

But here’s good. We grow hundreds of erythroniums. Pagoda, White Beauty and Revolutum, all bouncy and doing well.

But we’ve repeatedly failed to get any more different ones to grow for us. We have usually purchased them singly, at considerable expense, planted them carefully and then - they just vanish forever. However, we’ve just got one ! Here’s Joanna!

Phew! (But next year??)

And this goes on for weeks. The desperate search for plants which I dote on but which have not yet shown any sign of life. I cannot show you my Thalictrum Splendide emerging into the daylight, because it hasn’t, despite my looking every day. It’s not new; it’s about six years old, and this has been a very mild winter. Very wet though.. Not a single green shoot. I’ll keep looking, and hoping....

How can the ground be so empty? In summer I can’t squeeze a new plant in anywhere.

And what about some newly planted Geranium Patricia. ? Intended to create another drama, in a bed with Geum Totally Tangerine. Could be fabulous. However, the geum have zoomed up and look about to flower. The geranium did pop up a single leaf per plant. Then the very next day they had all disappeared. Every one. Not a shred left. Now, about ten days later, there’s this:

Should I be hoping???? Price of a wet winter = snails?? Crows??

Meanwhile, of course, things like ground elder are happily romping around.

They come into bloom gradually, several at a time, it seems. I noticed, last year, that they did all arrive in the end. So this year it has been Charles’s job to worry about them, while I have looked on complacently.

I do attempt to console myself for the absence of favourite and very important plants by investigating replacements. Only to discover they cost twice as much, or more, than I expect. The only affordable possibility now seems to be bare root plants. I used to buy bare root plants in the autumn - big, healthy specimens. It’s still the way to buy trees and roses and perhaps many other things I have lots of. But these bare root plants are something else.

That is a replacement for one of my missing geraniums. (Bought here) Will it grow with care and attention? Well, it’s certainly getting that. I am out there every morning hoping for a sign of life. (And yes, dear reader, I did put it in a pot and water it.)

The real spring work here is repairing and painting - woodwork, metal work, anything that can rust or rot and will rust and rot. This is Charles’s major effort and without his efforts the place would disintegrate. And we certainty wouldn’t get to sit in the garden, as our seats - and we have many - rot. We replaced one though, in a fit of extravagance, as the one we bought was said to be rot proof. Embarrassed to say it’s plastic, but it looks good.

The about to rot wooden one which it replaced was then in need of a new site. We found a place in the woods. The reason this is worth mentioning is that we were delighted and surprised to find that it gave us two new things. The first was the view of the seat, which provided a focus in an otherwise sort of anonymous space.

And secondly, more obviously, it gave us a new view. We hadn’t sat in that spot before.

It was good for sitting, in the evening sun. Not so good for a photo - sorry! I wonder how often a seat could be transforming, in a garden? Especially if you then sit in it a lot. And that is always a good thing.

And here’s that video, in case you missed it. So you can sit, and watch.