March has almost finished and in this upside down year it certainly has not been “in like a lion, out like a lamb” as the winds are roaring down the country. It continues to be exceptionally mild, going to 21 degrees centigrade a couple of days ago. Seemingly this winter has been the mildest since 1880.
I hope the little plums on the large tree in the foreground of the picture above don’t all get blown away.
This year the daffodils in the front garden were beautiful but the clumps were needing to be divided. I cannot plant bulbs at the bottom of the back garden because of the tree roots but I had a cunning plan! Kourosh was cutting out turf where he is planting wild flowers so I decided to cut out a shallow trough for the bulbs and cover them with the divots of turf. I must admit I found there were more bulbs than I had expected and carting the divots was more tiring. The resulting plantation is eccentric but if even twenty percent catch I shall be pleased.
Actually this is the sort of planting I would really like and there are masses of them all around us at the moment. Nature is much more cunning than I am.
The wild anemones are mainly white but some are a delicate violet or pink or a mix of the two (See, What colour is a white wood anemone?)
The Pulmonaria and
violettes and
this little white flower are out in abundance in the woods nearby. The white flower is Potentilla sterilis or the barren strawberry which I have been calling a wild strawberry up until today when I read this post on WordPress from Catbrook Wood. We do get wild strawberries too, but later, of course.
We continue to add as many bee and insect plants as possible into the garden. Today it was the addition of Polygala myrtifolia. It is of South African origin and tender but it is well protected in a corner of the front garden although it will need to be covered if we get hard frosts.
It is supposed to flower all year round but more plentifully in the spring. You can see the stamens full of pollen tempting the bees.
Will it be more successful than the Camelia which has a successful but short season?
The female Osmia cornuta have arrived to keep me amused. I was amazed to watch this one decide to clean out a hole another insect has used so that she could re-use it. I have a variety of empty holes available but she capriciously decided that this one was the one that she wanted.
This blue tit has been providing us with entertainment every morning as he tries to see off another male that peers at him from inside our car. I would imagine it is the spring and the mating season that makes him more aggressive but it does seem that he is rather looking for trouble.
These intruders get everywhere if you let them.
Continuing on the theme of garden animals, can you see the one in this picture?
Clue it is exactly in the middle of the photograph and is not easier to see in real life.
Give up? A frog in the hand is easier to spot. There are a lot of these little tree frogs (Hyla meridionalis) around this year.
a french garden 