An assessment

This weekend was my first chance to properly assess the garden this year.  The lengthening days have meant that there have been tantalising twilight-lit glimpses of activity as I arrive home from work in the evening, but no real time to get out into the garden and take a good look.  Here's what I found:

My garden is looking overgrown!  This I knew, and for the most part is the result of a deliberate strategy to leave well alone last year due to a) not knowing what was in the garden or what to do with it; b) it being too late in the year and too close to frosts to prune back some of the identifiable overgrown shrubs; and c) wanting to leave plenty of ground cover for over-wintering wildlife.


This is definitely a spring garden - yay for Spring

The bulbs that started sprouting in August and have so far only produced massive carpets of leggy shoots have materialised into grape hyacinths - joy!


My garden is shady.  This meant protection from the worst of the frosts over Winter but now means that other, more open, gardens on the street are way advanced of mine in the flowering of bulbs.  I even have gradients of shade within the garden, with the shadiest parts those closest to the garden gate.  The primroses that are putting on an amazing display near the front door haven't even begun to bud near the gate.


It's nice to meet old friends again.  We've been here nine months now and it was only after I had stood puzzling to identify tree in bud half way along our boundary wall that I remembered the faded spikes of lilac blooms when we moved in.  And lilac is one of my favourite trees!

I have had some successes already.  The rambling rose under the window is already looking perkier after a prune and Winter under mulch and the japanese anemones are starting to get going too.