Reflections upon April in the Garden

It seems almost too late to reflect upon April in the garden now, as the season speeds through at a dizzying pace. The last of the narcissi that I photographed at the beginning of the month, are but a distant memory, as the apple blossom forms a delicate pale pink froth over the once bare apple trees and the magnificent spears of the Echiums make an informal guard of swaying spires around the lawn.

We’ve been lucky this year and nature awarded us a dry Mediterranean-style spring of clear blue skies and cool nights admittedly occasionally interspersed with savagely cold winds drawn straight from the arctic.

The weather this April

The earth has grown dryer each day, eventually settling into deep cracks and yet the plants have nearly leapt out of the ground in the endless hours of sunshine.

I made of little video of the garden as we sat beside the lawn (or should I say slumped on a garden bench) at the end of the day, as we finished preparing the garden for our Easter and bank holiday bed and breakfast guests.

The April Garden’s photo album

As we grow busier I have spent a little less time on my Garden project that I told you about in the March diary and we settled down to carrying our Breakfast there at the end of the morning instead, to eat within its sheltering green walls and just dream a little of future plans.

The one thing that my visit to Tremenheere sculpture garden in April taught me to appreciate is to observe how a garden can frame the sky within its areas – something that I haven’t considered before. Do go and visit James Turrell’s” domed chamber open to the sky and just sit and absorb the focus of the heavens – it is purely magical.

In praise of Garden Rooms

I might be biased but I do love our garden room to sit in sometimes, at the end of the day. We made ours twenty six years ago, in a little inside but outside space, with an ever open door on one side from an old building that was probably an old dairy above a big water tank. We enlarged an old window to add French doors to the terrace and that in itself proved to be a project and a half as angle grinders, sledge hammers and even the forks of a tractor where tried to hack through the thick concrete wall or push it down. David Giles took this lovely picture of our Garden Room for Twenty Five Beautiful Homes last year (and incidentally the stunning photo on teh front of our website too!)

We added some warm terracotta floor tiles, rattan chairs and recycled a “sale room find” sideboard with a distressed green paint wash ( mind you striping the old varnish off of it took forever!) Before adding mounds of cushions in jaunty striped and printed French designs. A perfect spot at the end of the day to enjoy the garden and make dreams while reflecting on April in the Garden here.

Following the seasons

As we follow the season onwards from April into May we’ve stated a radical pruning programme to improve the dimensions in the Italian Garden inspired in part by our visit this month to the stunning gardens on St Michael’s mount and the magnificent succulents there. And so we are removing some of the side hedges to let more light and sunshine into the gravel border.

If you follow our facebook page you may have spotted the recent developments but as Charles said “Beware of women bearing gifts of saws!”