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April 1999
A mild start, a mild finish but a vicious frost followed by rain in the middle.
Until Easter daffodils ruled supreme but Aubretia was this month's constant.
The vixen brought out her cubs for exercise on the 10th, all five of them and ruined the vegetables .
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During the cold wet spell the view of garden from the conservatory looked pretty uninspiring. |
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and the bluebells hid in the weeds |
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Unfortunately I was in the USA when the frost hit. It completely killed this year's growth on the fossil tree, the fig tree, the wisteria and the bush hydrangea. The roses' new copper foliage shrivelled. The forget-me-nots turned a lacklustre grey. Jonquils wept on the ground.
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Sunshine soon returned. The forget-me-nots turned the garden blue. The jonqils spread their perfume The broom took over the starring role |
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And Hugonis just managed to bloom in April
I started sowing the potatoes on Good Friday, The onion sets that were doing well have been battered by the foxes as have the early peas and the snow peas. The brassica seedlings and carrots have disappeared . The broad beans were in flower at the time of the big frost so I shall have to wait for the next blooms to set. The Fuit trees have flowered well. The pears were first but they caught the frost, The established mini apples were next and they too seem to have verl little fruit. The new apples have flowered well but I doubt if they will bear fruit this year. Neither plum trees flowered at all.
The spawn all turned into tadpoles over Easter but the pond level sunk drastically on windy days and I have had to refill from the tap. A neighbour over the road gave me five Koi but I have not seen them yet the water is so murky,
