Here is my spring diary, where I share my recent gardening activities, observations and projects. Hopefully, you will find some juicy ideas, tips and inspiration for your own garden adventures.
Keir Watson
March
Tidying up, cutting back, pruning… Several clear bright days, but mostly cloudy and cold. Not the most inviting weather to work in the garden. Fortunately, the pace of change is slow at this time of year, so gardening is leisurely. There are no demands for mowing or hedge trimming, so there is time to reflect, plan, and make changes to beds and borders. In a couple of months I’ll be rushing to keep up with the exploding growth, hedges and lawn.
The Pond Garden — March starts off cold. Once the sun warms things up a bit, I get in the garden to replant some beds. I’m taking out perennials that are too big and replacing them with smaller ones.New plants! — I ordered some more Kniphofia ‘Poco Citron’ (see my original in this post) as I think they really suit my Pond Garden planting scheme. My philosophy: repeat what works.Eryngium planum ‘Blue Hobbit’ — Along with the Kiphofia, I ordered this sea holly. Hopefully, with that name, it shouldn’t be too tall. The blue might contrast nicely with the yellow knophofia nearby.Raised Gravel Bed — As well as pruning the roses and weeding, I dug out several perennials that were just too tall (Iris sibirica, Salvia Caradonna, and Perovskia) replacing them with smaller spurges, alliums, kniphofia, and cyclamen. (BTW That’s Thyme and Euphorbia myrsinites growing in the path)Euphorbia ‘Miner’s Merlot‘ — As part of revamping this gravel bed, I also planted several of these colourful spurges. The wine-purple foliage is their main claim to fame. Not sure yet if I like them or not.Divide and Rule — In my greenhouse, I continued to divide and repot Agapanthus plants. This one was cut into four large chunks and planted up in big 10in plastic pots.Botanical Photography Exhibition — King’s College London, March 2025. These are selected photos taken by the Quebec Botanist Marie-Victorin (in the 1930s)…Botanical Photography Exhibition (right side) … and this side were my botanical photographs providing a modern take on botanical photography. (2020s)Woodland Garden — My little woodland garden is so beautiful at this time of the year. Being at the front of my house, it gets a lot of comments from our visitors.White Martagon Lily — I planted 20 of these bulbs in groups of 3-5 in carefully prepped holes. Over the next fortnight a rodent dug most of them attracted by the bone meal I’d added!Long term performers — These clumps of Nacissus ‘Jumblie” are over a decade old. I guess I should lift and divide them some day… Just not today.Disporopsis pernii — This is an evergreen Solomon’s Seal, which grows in little colonies about 40-50cm tall. Like many evergreen perennials, these overwintering-stems will yellow and die by summer, so its time to cut them back, ready for the new shoots to emerge.Woodland Wonders — Anemone blanda, primrose and wood spurge: not the most exotic, but these shade-loving perennials are so delightful and reliable every spring.
What is maturity in a garden? As a garden matures, one might think it becomes static, fixed in its design — complete. But that’s not true. At least, not exactly. What I’ve found as my garden has matured, is that it actually becomes more durable, more capable of taking change without destroying its underlying integrity or character. When a garden is young and developing, a failure of one element can spoil the overall picture, ruin the plan. In my garden, however, now the hedges, beds and trees are more established, my garden can accommodate the failure of any element, even a whole section, and shrug it off. Change is still possible, even necessary. Things still get old, break down, die back unexpectedly. But I’ve learned not to be too precious about anything. If something isn’t working, I can simply take it out and try something else – a shrub, piece of topiary, some established perennials… almost with alacrity. The garden as a whole has enough successful elements, that its overall character is unfazed, accommodating, in a way the younger garden was not. That’s what it is for a garden to mature.
April
Where are the April showers? This must have been one of the driest springs on record, so lots of watering was necessary. I got away without any losses, and overall the garden appears happy with all the early sunshine. The pollinators seem less abundant though. I carry on pruning, weeding and experimenting. For me, gardening is rarely a chore. Even weeding is creative, meditative, attentive… a simple pleasure.
Watering — With virtually no rain, I put the sprinkler on the woodland beds, but only a couple of times during the month. The soil dried out again very quickly. Even the most delicate ferns seemed to cope.Greenhouse Peach — I think I’ve finally got my peach into the form I want – a UFO with ABC. (Article here).New feature shrub — in the past I had standard gooseberries in my two square box-edged raised beds. But the pigeons and saw flies thought they were theirs. So, this year I took out the goosegogs and planted Osmanthus × burkwoodii for its olive-like evergreen leaves. It can be clipped quite tightly – eventually into a multistem dome I’m thinking.Fig Fan Pruning — This year, I removed the lowest two (unproductive) branches of my fig, and extended the underplanting of purple Heuchera.Topiary Troubles — I’m gradually shifting from high-maintenance box to yew, although it has its own issues: The yew ball had been in a pot for two years, but was plagued by vine weevils. Hopefully it will recover here.Selective Weeding — Not all the seedlings in my brick paving are unwanted. This thrift has been joined by Sisyrinchium striatum – which has never seeded for me before, so I’ll leave them to see what they do.Invasive Bamboo — Both neighbours have planted bamboo against the boundary fences, and I have to deal with the rhizomes that make their way onto my side.Espalier Apple ‘Sunset’ — Looking beautiful in flower with the pink and white cherry blossom above. (History here)TIP: Floppy Perennial Support — I place upturned wire hanging baskets over some of my perennials in April to act as a support as they grow. It helps stop them flopping so much.Robin nest — This is the second year that the Robins have decided to nest in our Irish yew, and the second year they have failed to fledge.Hosta Collection — My Hosta pots are looking good after a quick tidy up and sweeping. Easy to look after, although the slugs…Amelanchier in flower — At its peak for a few days in early April, Amelanchier lamarkii seen here with clipped box, white Starflowers and tulips. (History here)Spraying the Box — I overdid my special box-moth spray (probably too much thyme oil) scorching the new growth in places. But amazingly, I’ve not had any caterpillars this spring, not one! So I guess I’m doing something right.
Box moth and Blight Box-moth caterpillars and box-blight make growing box so difficult these days, yet there is nothing quite as accommodating for topiary as buxus. My policy is to gradually reduce the amount of box in my garden, replacing it with alternatives (mainly yew so far.) At the same time, I’m trialing different regimens to control both caterpillars and blight. This year, I’ve been surprisingly successful with the moth. Indeed, I have not had a single caterpillar in my garden as I write this at the end of May. That’s a first, and that’s with just a single spraying in early April. I’m not sure why it has worked so well, as apparently, this is a bumper year for Box Moth damage. Have I stumbled on some perfect blend of deterrents in my spray? I don’t use pheromone traps or anything like that, just a cocktail of systemic insecticide, thyme oil (the moths avoid the scent) and cretaceous earth (to make the foliage less palatable). Who knows. I’m finding blight is now more of a threat, and harder to get a handle on. One idea I’m trying is to prune-up some of my box, keeping the foliage away from the ground and improving air circulation. It’s fun to try a new topiary pattern, and box can tolerate heavy pruning.
May
Despite the need for lots of watering, mowing and hedge trimming (once the birds had fledged) I found time to complete a lot of projects, including some new planting on the green roof, cleaning and painting some decking and setting up a front door display of potted perennials and annuals. With flowers emerging everywhere, I spent a lot of time on photography.
Unidentified Woodland Peony — I grow this in my woodland garden, where it is magnificent and scented of cloves in May. I thought I got it from Beth Chatto as a pink form of Molly-theWitch. But apparently, that’s not a thing!?! (Somehow the mystery only adds to her allure.)The Pond Garden is springing into life, with thrift and snow-in-summer dominating the picture in early May. The pond attracts wildlife even now…Large Red Damselfly — One of the early visitors to the pond. I’ve also seen several butterflies in the garden, though they disappear as quickly as the arrive.Hosta ‘Undulata Mediovariagata’ — A wonderful large leaved hosta that I grow in my border and try to keep free of slugs for as long as possible. Three weeks in, and so far I’m succeeding! (Note: week 4, something got past my guard)Polystichum setiferum‘Herrenhausen’ — This is a beautiful, architectural fern that was stuffed in a corner where no one saw it. I moved it into this pot earlier this year, and it’s now on show right outside our dining room doors. Much better.Photogenic Phern — Here is the same fern, up close, providing a fabulous frondy foto.Decking Looking Worn — The decking ‘step’ that runs along the back of my house was looking dirty and tired. I gave it a good scrub and then a coat of stain…Newly painted decking — Once completed it looked great and will be good for another 4 years or so. In this photo, I’m just sitting down to prune out the old stems from the groundcover plants.New Plants for my Green-Roof — My new green-roof planting was looking too yellow/gold/bronze, so I have added these dwarf hebes to provide some mid-greens.More Roof Plants — for contrast, I\ve added some dwarf purple barberry (Berberis atropurpurea ‘nana’. The yellow at the back is a shrubby potentilla, while the wonderful mass of yellow pea flowers at the front is Genista ‘Lydia’.Pyracantha Espalier — I’ve only trimmed the pyracanther lightly so far this year, allowing it to flower before I give it a firm hair cut. It’s now spanning three fence panels: quite a spectacle.Warning! Spurge sap! — Incautiously, I ripped out a large Euphorbia myrsinites without wearing gloves. I should have washed off the sap straight away, but half an hour later, I came out in this rash.Front Door Display — I’ve revampted the pots with annuals and perennials in a vibrant display around our front door. I managed to overwinter several of last year’s pots, including some Osteospermum, Nemisia, Pelagonium, Heuchera, and even the Lysimachia in hanging baskets.Flower Photography — The flowers at the front door provide some wonderful opportunities for flower photography. The hanging bells are Nectoscordum Siculum; The yellow daisies are an Osteospermum.A New Vasriety of Dahlia — These are flowers from Dahlia ‘Starburst’ or perhaps ‘Maxi Starburst Pink’, which won the FleuroStar 2024-25 award. I’m trying it in a pot to see how it performs. The flowers are pretty unusual.Expert topiary clipper — Will Cronin comes twice per year (MAy and October) to clip all of the box topiary and hedges. He is great, fast and knowledgable. (You can find him at www.excelsisgardens.co.uk)Topiary Spiral — This box spiral — just clipped — grows next to our front door. Perfectly pruned by Will.Reworking the topiary — A beautiful corner of the garden with the Amelanchier tree and foxgloves. At the front: a new box drum, sculpted from the previous (but tatty) cylinder. The background is a crisp vertical Lonicera hedge, trimmed to perfection.Rosa ‘Jacqueline du Pré‘ — May is when all my roses produce their first and largest flush of flowers. (See my rose article here).Rosa ‘Strawberry Hill‘ — I’ve managed to get this short climber to fill a 4ft wide gap on the end of my fence. It’s dripping with large pink flower heads.
Agreed this blog is so detailed – for me,a keen garden but a little timid to try more adventurous techniques , clear tips give me the confidence to try to step out of my comfort zone
What a fantastic blog this is! Beautiful, informative, delightful. Thank you!
Indeed, I did enjoy this post. Thanks!
Agreed this blog is so detailed – for me,a keen garden but a little timid to try more adventurous techniques , clear tips give me the confidence to try to step out of my comfort zone
Thanks Lizz