So we seem to be somewhat out of practise with blogging! But whilst we haven't had time to blog we have overhauled a lot of the garden and booked in a number of weddings. It's a mental time of year really. So much has to get done in such a short time, oh and our Pinterest account has had a much overdue facelift.
Image by Ross Talling
Winter has been wet and long this year and I'm relieved that we are having Spring of sorts. I love Spring, the light mornings and finally the evenings are drawing out. Maz on the other hand doesn't...she says the light is too harsh and everything seems to shout too load in Spring - she's a mellow old bird and has a love affair with Autumn, I get that and actually at the end of Summer, Autumn will be my favourite month too!
After having my AGA serviced (not a great time of year for it to keep going out midst a cold snap!) and cleaned at the same time too, I suddenly realised how much I embrace new, new shiny things, new clean AGA, a new notepad when the old one is finished....first page means very neat handwriting (anyone else do that?!), new season. It's funny how much I get board of each season towards the end. I'm the first to wish the wood burner gets fired up in Autumn and equally the first to celebrate when I don't have to lug wood into the house anymore in Spring! I must try harder to be content and not race onto the next thing...
This spring has already seen it's fair share of challenges. Flowers seemed to be coming along early with a pretty mild March - worries of thin bolting stems were soon put to rest with a harsh cold end to March and a further chilly start to April. Reports around the country of short tulip stems are at times the harsh reality of flower farming. For the previous two years by mid April most of our tulips were in full harvest and in 2014 were nearly over. This year sees them a good few weeks behind but with a steady pace of sunshine and showers harvesting is soon upon us.
These black eyed anemones are a winner this year mainly because they didn't get eaten by mice like in previous years. We do have a rat though...but Maz has assured me that if you have a rat you don't have mice... The rat seems to be causing us little trauma at he moment - maybe he likes the to admire the flowers rather than destroy them?!
We learnt our lesson last year from growing fritillaries out in our field and not having the right conditions for them. We lack shade on the farm. So this year we grew them all in pots and kept them close to the tunnel. They have been a real success and a great option for people with limited growing space. These Fritillaria Uva-Vulpis have a good stem length and planted densely are fairly self supporting.
Our trusty patch of narcissi are such a welcomed bit of sunshine, again the crop has been far later than the last year. We planted a whole new bed in slight worry that maybe fancy narcissi may not do so well in the second year. In fact last years crop has done well and has flowered earlier than the newly planted bed. The fancy ones need to be cut when open as trials at home have found that they just don't open in water like conventional varieties on the high street.
Ok so something that isn't late and in fact is super early...Iris. A crop we have to fill that gap after the tulips have finished and this year we are cutting them now...amazing. Maybe this mild winter has provided the perfect growing conditions for them.
Last week saw the first of our Spring weddings and yet again we are thankful for flowering shrubs this time it was Pieris's turn.
Bridal bouquet finished with Lancaster & Cornish Plant Dyed Silk Ribbon
Anyway I'm bored of this blog post now I'm off to think up a new one!!!!
