A Trip round the garden

This morning, while letting the chickens out of the ranch, I took a few minutes to check on the plants  . . .

Please humour me  . . . .

Strawberries that I 'cleaned' up and added some fertiliser (usual ex chicken bedding) seem to be ok.  There are several flower buds appearing so I think I will be on slug watch soon, although the robins may beat me to it!!

My Auricula is blossoming, I love these flowers, hopefully I will be able to add some more colours once we can visit the garden centres again.

These two Anemone plants were being sold off cheaply so, of course, they fell into my basket!

They have already flowered once and this second flowering looks just as good, the blue one is just visible to the right.



I discovered some of the Delphiniums have survived under all the bushy growth . . . .

Four . . .
No!

Five . . . down by the stick . . . .

The standards are coming on well.
The Robinia looks as though it is coming into flower . . .
. . . .  as it is just a shoot of the main tree (which was a seed brought home from France) we didn't know what to expect . . . .
 but that looks like a flower bud!

Olive, transplanted last week, has no visible change.  I may prune it right down to help the roots settle.
The Laburnum is in full leaf but I cannot see any buds, we usually have lots of yellow chains hanging down.  This was a small seedling growing in the paving out front, it must have fell from next door's tree.  The tree had fallen down during a particular windy night, just missing our car.  I planted the seedling in a concrete pot, this would be about twenty years ago. . . .

The Laburnum is pruned after flowering and the pot watered by nature, and me when I think about it!!



I was really attracted to this corner of the pond, all the plants are in flower and the contrasts are beautiful.
The maroon of the Helebores, the tiny, white sparkles of the Wild Garlic and the purple of the Ajuga all seem to contrast yet display against each other.
Somewhere in there is a very ornate Fern but that wont show until the Hellebores die back.

The pond plants the we cut back quite severely last year are now shooting.




Our 'Architectural' plant is in bud . . . . I can only find one at the moment but we shall see.


I hope that this is all I will be doing outside today, I may sit outside and watch Mother Nature at work.

I did notice that the pigeons are nest building in the street tree outside, a bit late when you think the the robins are on their second clutch!