Black eyed Susan, liatris, rubechia, Joe Pye, and more. Yellows and purples and pinks amid a deeply green.

Wild garden starting to hit its stride for this year…

Lily tree, with multiple pink and purple flower heads.

The lily beetles took all the lilies as per usual. Just a rampaging uncontrollable devastation. Not sure why I still bother. And then they moved onto the ones that they shouldn’t like…as per usual. They just about survived. This fella is putting on a fragrant show…

Orange day lilies alongside a greenhouse. Clematis flowering in background.

Day lilies time. Samaritan Joe still blooming away in the background too.

Pale pink poppy with red poppies and a wisteria in the background.

That most rare of things: Delicate poppies flowering WITHOUT the threat of an absolute downpour.

Always. The eternal war.

Hostas of many colours and varieties, ferns, heuchera, dicentra, snake roots etc

Couple of days of rain and the shade garden has shot up and filled in in the blink of an eye…

Lilac coloured Columbine against a background of green foliage.

Dappled light over in the woodland garden. Fern leaf dicentra, foxgloves, hostas, ferns, phloxx etc

Azalea Gibraltar blazing away in a bright yellow

Lots of pottering and planting today. Gorgeous day. Third in a row. Will probably snow tomorrow by way of balancing things up…

Hostas and phloxx and anenomes and dicentra and heuchera and ferns

The first Columbine of the year. Purple and pale yellow.

Woodland phloxx. Lots of lilac blooms on tall stems.

I’m not a fan of all the rain.

The woodland garden is.

Daffs in dappled sun with tulips in the foreground and phloxx in the background.

Went out with my grown-up camera last night because there’s only a few more days until these are all done.

Red bleeding heart blooms on a dark chocolatey red stem, with dark green leaves, spattered in rain drops

Bright pink bleeding heart blooms on green stems with fern shaped leaves

White bleeding heart blooms on bright green stems with raindrop covered leaves

A queue of Pink bleeding heart blooms on a very long stem

Very wet. Cooler temps. Very happy Dicentra.

Lost loads last year to a rampant infection and was unsure what would be back this Spring from the ones that I hoped I’d saved.

Peach tree blossoms. Pink petals bleeding into white at their centre. On a branch backed by bright blue skies.

Peach is next in the blossom race.

White blossoms, against the white blossom of the serviceberry tree.

Cherry tree joins in with the whole blossom thing…

White blossoms against a blue sky

First blossom of the year, courtesy of the Serviceberry trees. Cherry looks like it won’t be far behind…

Lime green leaves of a dicentra…with its purple stalks.

Bleeding Hearts have gone crazy overnight with some much needed rain

Rhubarb and custard coloured hellebores

Yellow and pink hellebores

Burgundy hellebore

Hellebores bringing colour to the back garden.

Peachy orange tulips with rain drops. Lots of daffs in the background.

Grey and drizzly today, but some very early and eager tulips are attempting to add some colour…

Clump of daffs with blue skies beyond.

What an absolute beaut of a day.

Pale milky yellow daffs with a vivid yellow trumpet.

About a hundred daffs opened today. And that is a-okay with me.

Hellebores against a blue sky with trees in the background. Purple centres, white petals blending to purple edges.

Helleborezapoppin’

Lavender coloured 7 petalled flower with delicate yellow stamens. Long stalks and shamrock-ish shaped leaves.

Hepatica quietly going about its business in the shade garden.

Dwarf daffs opening up in the lawn…some in foreground, some in background.

About to break into a gallop. It’s all happening now.

Vivid yellow dwarf daffodil

It’s been a long old wait, but the first of the daffs opened up this afternoon. About 500 more to come.

Scruffy, mostly dormant, leaf strewn strip of garden. A symphony of browns.

Wild garden in Summer last year with tall grasses of all varieties, Joe Pye, wild Veronicastrum, hyssop, liatris, and lots more, with a narrow path snaking through it all.

Late summer with the grasses going to seed and turning pinks and reds. Yucca, Thalictrum and Veronicastrum…

Autumn and vivid reds and browns as the grasses go over. Sea oats in the foreground.

The wild garden is a long, wide strip that runs parallel to the back garden and a road. It was so sandy the grass was impossible to keep alive there so made the decision to completely re-wild it. And it is a joy all summer long and well into autumn. So much insect life.

Scrubby now, mind.

A geum getting ready to flower. Purple flower heads emerging from green fern-like clusters of leaves. Old Man’s Whiskers / Prairie Smoke.

A long long day over in the wild garden, slowly uncovering it all. Didn’t snow today, so that was a bonus.

Some Prairie Smoke coming to life.

Yellow dandelion like flower on top of thick purple and green stems

Very small slender green shoot / stem with purple and yellow fingery petals

Not much going on out there, yet.

Somehow some Coltsfoot has found its way into a bed where I definitely didn’t plant any. And there’s a wild iris doing its thing.

A snowdrop in a barren desert of nothingness

Let there be life…

Grey brown barren woodland beds. Leaves everywhere. Squirrels have dug up tags. Bulbs. You name it.

It’s that tipping point moment, where ‘Spring Optimism’ clunks over to ‘Everything is Such a Mess and There’s So Much to Do Negativity’.

Sun in a clear blue sky shining through bare trees and casting long shadows on a dormant garden.

Brisk but lovely today. A lot of cutting back and gentle tidying, all while being conscious of overwintering insects and their eggs, and the chance of Winter II: Winter Harder.

Me holding secateurs

I hereby declare the 2025 Gardening Season open.

May God bless her, and all who sail in her…