Gwynne Hetherington

Unsettled weather for the week to come, more showers and cooler.

We hope you all are well and enjoying your gardens. What a joy it is to see rain which is lasting more than 3-4minutes, the gardens certainly need it as do the farmers!

It has come to my attention that the Diamond-Back Moth is about and devastating the Brassicas, Aubrietia, Wallflowers and Alyssum, so if your plants are not protected with fleece or fine micro mesh I would make sure to try and cover them up. The moth is very small about 1cm in length. One life cycle is completed in 15-30 days so their numbers can increase hugely. Garlic solution, washing powder in dilute mix with water might help. Hopefully this message has reached you in time.

We are deadheading in our flower borders, cutting grass and edging the lawns and now the Strawberries are ripening and they are deliciously sweet. Next it will be the Peas and Broad Beans to pick in a week or two’s time. It is a productive time in the garden calendar which we will enjoy and what we can not use we will process and freeze to consume in the winter months.

We are making the most of relaxing in our garden taking in the scent, colours and birdsong which lifts anyone’s spirit.

Our weather is going to be rough for the weekend with high winds and rain showers. Then we are back to warm and sunny days with night-time temperatures much milder, 7 – 9 C degrees.

Whether we will actually get a good splash of rain or not, any dampness is welcome so I will dig up three big clumps of Primulas, split them into single plants and pot them up. I could plant the single plants back into the flower borders where they eventually will go but the little plants might get lost and I will not be able to keep them watered so having them in pots means they will be planted later in the year.

The Daffodils have just about finished and the big clumps that I want to lift and divide have a small cane next to them to remind me later, when the foliage yellows, to deal with them.

With night-time temperature much milder it is time for the Dahlias to be planted out in the big pots, I will need to add some home made compost to the old compost, mix together and the Dahlias should thrive.

The vegetables are coming on a treat but we do need to sow another lot of Beetroot and Lettuce seeds. Like last year the Parsnip seeds are not appearing which might be that the first sowing was too early so we have to take note and next year sow them a few weeks later. Still wishing to have Parsnips I have sown some single seeds into cells yesterday and hope to see results in a few days, following a friend’s advice!

We have some Willow canes left lying behind the house which have dried out enough to use as stakes to support the Delphiniums and Lupins in the flower borders and with the strong winds coming I had better get busy!

It is such a pleasure having a garden and it is a joy working in it with the birdsong and scent coming from various plants.

The little moisture we had yesterday was most welcome and hopefully we should see some more this coming weekend! The temperatures are well above 0C degrees except maybe this Friday. After this weekend the days ahead look to be dry sunshine with cloudy periods.

This is the ideal time for sowing root crop seeds such as Carrots, Parsnips, Beetroot, Spinach, Chard and Turnips amongst many others you choose too. A good watering before and after sowing was our strategy because our ground is pretty dry! We sow our round lettuce in trays and then prick out the seedlings for planting later on.

We have discovered that most of our Tulip varieties are infected with a fungal disease, Tulip Fire. Some leaves are twisted and discoloured so we shall lift the lot out of the ground and bin them, the moral is if we want tulips in the garden we should treat them as annuals. Here was I thinking we with our sandy soil can leave the bulbs in year after year, no such luck!

The Apple and Pear trees have had their prune ie. we cut the new shoots back 2/3 to a outward facing bud. The Plums will need to wait until early summer or they could be affected by Silver Leaf where the leaves get a silver sheen to them.

I have been going through the flower borders weeding them and digging out the unwanted spread of plant growth. Also I’ve added more stock fencing hoops as plant supports.

The Ornamental Cherry blossom, the Daphne, the Cardamine, the Dogviolets, the Anenome the Primulas and Celandine are a welcome sight to cheer our most unusual situation of the Coronavirus.

Our weather here in Moray has been very kind to us and looking ahead for the next week to ten days we are in for more dry weather except for tomorrow morning. Another cold spell is coming up this weekend so maybe some delicate plants need protection against the cold with a fleece.

The garden is still a bit sleepy although the bulbs have come through and looking promising. I think with the little to no rain the herbaceous borders look as if nothing is growing but time will bring growth at some stage. With no rain in the forecast I will give the Rhododendrons a bucket of water each to help with the flowering period.

The vegetable seeds are coming along nicely but are not at a stage where they need to be pricked out and potted on. There are some flower seedlings which are ready to prick out and pot on.

There is still some cutting back and tidying up to do in the flower border to get on with. At the same time I shall have some stock fencing ready cut to put over some perennials that need support. This method has proved very successful in the past. The Lavenders and some Ericas which have passed flowering have been cut back today. Next are the Buddleias to be shaped and cut back.

We have some lovely home-made compost all ready to be spread out onto the new bed we have created where the multistemmed Elm tree had to be taken down due to Dutch Elm Disease.

In a weeks time I will sprinkle some Poppy seeds in the areas which will need some extra colour, also the Meadow seed mix and Calendulas will be sown direct into the soil and let them get on with what they do best. Then next in line will be to sow the Peas, Beans, Carrots, Parsnips and Beetroot seeds and that will be a relief!

We are in a very unusual surreal situation with the Coronavirus on our door step so to have a garden is a real bonus and we are very fortunate to be able to step out in ours to enjoy the developing stages of plant life.

And yes the first frog spawn has been spotted today and hopefully there will be much more to follow!