Maytime

What with gardening at Hill House and gardening in Cornwall, our own garden has been a bit neglected and the greenhouse was bulging with seedlings ready to go out.............so now most of them are in the ground or potted up. We haven't quite got room for all the courgette seedlings, so some of them may have to go to new homes............and the tomatoes aren't quite ready to move on yet. My basil has done extremely well so it's all potted on, not quite ready to eat but smelling wonderful...............as is the lilac which is giving us great wafts of scent every time we go past............I've planted out the antirhinos, mimulus and sunflowers.............first oriental poppies out (pink ones win this year) and the tree peony is amazing, the flowers turn out to be yellow and really beautiful. ...............

In the pond there are now various sizes of frog plus tadpoles and it must be getting a bit crowded............the big frogs like to get out and sit in the undergrowth when it's damp, i was peering into the pond wondering where they all were when i suddenly saw three pairs of bulgy little eyes just in front of my feet.............there a few very small frogs that must be last year's tadpoles, no sign of legs on this year's ones yet.............

One veg pot with runner bean, flying saucer and tomato plants planted up.............the barrel is coming on great with glads, dahlias, California poppies and something else which I think might be love-in-a-mist coming up...........no sign of the outdoor begonias or LOTV coming up yet but I've never had any success with LOTV in this garden although the ones at Hill House seem to be doing OK so far. As for begonias.............I planted three indoors of the same variety on the same day in the same compost...............one is about 6 ins and growing rapidly, one about 1 in and the third has only just appeared. So they are a bit temperamental I think...............

Morning Glories are out.................nasturtiums coming up everywhere as usual so some moved to the front and some into containers............borage coming up everywhere also, a few seedlings have gone to Hill House, some to the compost heap and the rest will be going in the drinks for the rest of the summer............I've put some Livingstone daisies along the front of the hot border just cos I like them, and we've planted some little thymes and creepers in front of the frog viewing station so we can sit there with our breakfast having our heads stroked by the Japanese maple every morning..............

More Georgia Blue............

Just cos I love them so much, although it's really difficult to get the colour right, that intense cobalt blue, been experimenting a bit with the settings on the camera to try and get a better image............anyway they're finished now so we won't see them again till next year...............

Or, what we did on our holidays..................

The perfect Easter break..............a weekend of backbreaking slog in a hot Cornish garden........ably assisted by a mutant blackbird, an interested robin
and assorted slow-worms that had been living a peaceful undisturbed existence in the disused veggie beds. Fiona watched all this with horror convinced that we must be hating every minute of it and trying to make us go and look at the sea, but there was just too much to do, discovering the much loved garden that lay under all the brambles and nettles............. The brambles and nettles did not give up without a fight, by the time we left I looked as if I'd been locked in a room with 25 Kilkenny cats, but we had uncovered several more veg beds, released one of the apple trees, tidied some of the borders and uncovered lots of carefully planted treasures in the beds near the pond. Of course Carrie managed to fall in the pond and give the newts a fright............we also found an indignant toad snuggled in the undergrowth.............but we've completely uncovered the little stair down into the back of the veg garden that was totally overgrown. Lots more to do of course, but three days of the Mad Gardening Squad has certainly made a difference, and we jolly well deserved that roast pork dinner..............we also enjoyed the traditional English barbecue which consists of several shivering people with coats on eating sausages in the rain................

The Lost Gardens of Tregaminion