The dance of spring through the garden

The dance of spring is unfolding through the Ednovean Farm gardens these days. Anticipated for so long through the lengthening days, the eternal dance of the seasons, has brought the gardens back to life.

We’ve started our garden campaign this year in the spring garden, amongst the newly emerging daffodils.

The Ednovean garden diary for early spring

February is the time that we reclaim the garden and regain the connection with the earth.

By late February the naturalised daffodils in the lower terraces have sprung into flower. Once more the vivid splashes of sweetly scented golden yellow herald spring through the gardens. It’s almost impossible to thin that these bulbs have lain dormant, secreted in the earth for almost a year until it was their time to flower again. Improbable but oh so true. The tiny miracles of nature each year.

It was such a pleasure to move amongst the vibrant flowers, in the glowing sunshine once more.

Our major spring garden job

This brings me to our major garden job of the year – to lower the overgrown front hedge! We were lucky, given our garden equipment of loppers, a battery operated chain saw and hedge trimmer, that a local farmer brought his tractor to mechanise the job. Nether-the-less there was still a week’s work to tidy the out of reach places and conduct the first major weeding and edging of the borders.

Each day we were accompanied by an earnest Spud-cat. And each day he would choose a different sheltered vantage point in the sunshine. I’m sure he views his contribution as moral support and quality control.

 (Mechanical hedge trimming has to be finished by the end of February and the birds start to nest, so there was a deadline looming!)

Windbreaks in the coastal garden

The Ednovean Farm garden flows across the hillside above the sea in all of her moods and the dance of spring can vary from an elegant waltz to an impassioned tango. So the garden is divided into sections in places with windproof trees.

Sometimes, even these trees are challenged too far and this winter we lost several at the entrance to The South walk or spring garden.. Strangely though, the space that was left looked rather more elegant and we repositioned the swing to high ground! By the end of the week the cats joined us in the sunshine for afternoon tea looking out to sea!