I'll be with you in apple-blossom time..............

which is now. very pretty, the three patio apples in their pots are all flowering, and the cherry at the front. the front garden is positively verdant, it's obviously decided it doesn't want to be paving so stuff is growing everywhere and it looks rather nice. a small cherry tree is sprouting by the front door, i guess we'll have to pull it out in case it undermines the foundations but it isn't doing any harm for now...........
greenhouse seedlings well away and we are now eating fresh salad ever day, soon be time to move the salads outside. carrots and parsley sprouting, basils off to a slow start but appearing at last, and for the first time the cumin as well. damned lovage back again and we also seem to have a mutant variegated borage seedling in the herb bed................
annuals in the warm bed sprouting, lots of weeds too but easier to pull once they're bigger..........some self-sown Shirley and Welsh poppies have appeared, and a clump of honesty in the wild wood. Epimedium very pretty this year with yellow flowers, but the Cystis much slower to flower than usual. have planted some more lilies for summer flowers against the wall. the Dame's Violet is back, a bit frostbitten but ready to flower...............not sure that the Passiflora has survived after all though, no sign of anything happening which is a bit sad........
bought some new things at Redhall, a potentilla with silvery leaves which i think will have red flowers, and a Rudbeckia "Irish Eyes" - in honour of the ancestors! a delphinium too which we're keeping in a container to try and slug-proof it, i've never succeeded in growing them but the flowers are so pretty....................
paeonies just about ready to come out..........and maybe even the one at the front, which has *never* flowered............that would be exciting. we will certainly have blackcurrants this year; the rhubarb is up and we've eaten the first of it, strawbs are looking healthy, gooseberries have tiny fruit forming, and there are even figlets on the tree................