Our living garden at Ednovean Farm as winter gives way to spring, it is an exciting place. Through the winter it has supporting so many creatures as the weather fortunes capriciously wax and wane and now the garden itself is springing into life once more.
Each day I treasure the extra minute of daylight, as a cherished gift of spring hopes. And then suddenly as though looking back through a long tunnel, the spring bulbs are shooting up and we have an extra hour or two to relish outside. It’s on the evenings when the sun lingers low in the sky, that is a perfect time to relish the garden and the rich tapestry of growth it provides around our home.
The golden hour of spring a gift to the living garden
The golden hour, as photographers tend to call it and is a special one to be treasured at this time of year, as each new sign of fresh life emerges. It’s a perfect moment to wander with a camera at the end of a busy day.
Usually I know where to find the first flowers in our garden. Although this year the Soleil d’ Or that usually flowers closer to Christmas, were overtaken by a humble daffodil.
Charting new developments in our garden life
You may remember the new path we created in the autumn? Well I hopefully pushed some very late planted of daffodils into the ground. (With a garden it is better to travel in hope than arrive some times!). And they’ve grown in sturdy unassuming ranks!
Spring bulbs
Barely a day has gone by without my checking on the new bulbs and the accompanying crocus, snakehead fritillaries and tulips..
Alas the crocus proved far too tempting for one garden resident. After a short loosing battle I’ve experimented by laying a length of chicken wire under the bark mulch and topping things off with a layer of Danni’s mucked out Miscanthus bedding. It doesn’t look pretty but I thought it might literally put them off the scent.
It’s worked in part, a few lonely crocus have emerged! Plan B will be to grow more in pots next year and then sink them in place later in the spring when food is more plentiful for our creatures.
Luckily I filled plenty of pots around the house with crocuses, tulips and hyacinths in anticipation of hosting spring holidays. Well at least I’ve got it half right – the bulbs have survived but the guests are absent!
Garden Projects
In each of my garden diaries I mention at least one project and through the winter Charles has been hard at work in his treasured Potager garden adding a new raised bed.
Last summers project to conquer the shade between the barns, is now showing some results with interesting textures too!
The living garden
It’s in this hinterland of hope, that we realise how much wildlife makes a home in our garden. Some evening we sit and watch the wrens flitting to bed in the ivy that clothes our home. Later in the summer the sparrows will hunt in the depths of the glossy green leaves and two tiny bats will emerge to hunt the courtyards on balmy evenings.
And we feel happy that our home and garden supports so many lives. Each species from butterfly to Badger has found a special spot in our garden and each help to make it so a so much richer environment for us all. Even if they do eat the odd packet of Crocuses!!
January and February in the Ednovean Farm Garden
As the daylight extends by infinitesimal measures, each day adds another minute of reflection in the gardens.
