Hooray! The growing season has now begun

‘APRIL, the angel of the months, the young love of the year,’ so said Vita Sackville West.

The start of a new month and hope lingers on for a bit of dry weather this April! The beginning of the growing season and plenty of aspirations for the growing year ahead.

Swallow watch has officially begun in my garden and there have been a few sightings close by in the last few days but none in the garden just yet.

All of the birds are actively building nests sometimes in the most surprising of locations like garden sheds and overgrown climbers so watch out for nests of eggs at this time of year and work around them for the short space of time needed.

It is a busy time in the garden and in nature as work is underway for the season of growth that lies ahead. The temperatures should begin to climb this month and provide more favourable growing conditions for the sowing of seeds indoors and outdoors.

Lots of seasonal jobs are underway and a great time to get staking those established herbaceous favourites like peonies, delphinums and echinops as they arise out of the soil and before they garner too much height as they will grow through supports and conceal their scaffolding! Hazel sticks and rods are great for this purpose and can be grown in the garden and coppiced yearly or every other year depending on the thickness of stake preferred. Bamboo, cornus or willow stems can also be used to good effect in supporting plants and it is great to generate useful resources ourselves in the garden.

Now is a good time to give plants a boost of home made compost or chicken manure pellets to help to fuel growth and as temperatures increase and there is plenty of moisture in the soil then the nutrients applied will be released and available to plant roots.

Many trees have already burst their buds and are coming into leaf and there are still plenty getting ready to go. Whitethorn is one of the first deciduous hedgerow plants to come back into the leaf and the young leaves are just beginning to unfurl. These can be used in salads to add a succulent texture and a nutty flavour early in the year.

Early in the growing year is the time for biennials to shine as they produce flowers in their second year of growth and many of them early as they are full of vim and vigour from the previous growing year and anxious to get the flowering display underway. Sweet william, honesty, sweet rocket, foxglove and forget me nots are some of my favourites.

Similar to planting spring flowering bulbs in the autumn and congratulating yourself for this undertaking when spring arrives, biennials bear great rewards early in the growing season and bridge the gap nicely between spring bulbs and herbaceous perennials. The beauty about many of these plants with a two year lifespan is that many of them are good self seeders so once planted in the garden they will perpetuate themselves if allowed to flower and set seed. Some of them are classified as bienniels and they manage to reappear for many years proving themselves in some cases to be short lived perennials.

It has been quite cold for the last few weeks and not conducive to sowing seeds unless some sort of heated environment was available. Hopefully this will change in the next few weeks and we can get sowing in earnest particularly vegetables and annual flowers.

Sowing too early can be a risky buisness and any protected growing space is at premium at this time of the year. Direct sowing can be undertaken in the polytunnel or glasshouse of lettuce, beetroot and carrots now.

Upcoming Fair

Fota Plant Fair is scheduled for Sunday April 14 , gates open at 11am until 4pm and admission is €5 with a €3 parking charge. There will be a range of specialist nurseries from around the country as well as artisan and local artists stands on display.

“It’s always great to host this wonderful event with the new addition of a craft section.

“We look forward to welcoming a large crowd of garden enthusiasts back to Fota again this year,” said Bryan Murphy, General Manager, Fota House Arboretum and Gardens.

“The Fair will be held in the area next to our car park to facilitate purchasers easily transferring their plants to their vehicles.

“There will be a Plant Creche in operation for those who wish to walk the Formal Gardens & Arboretum and our award-winning Victorian Working Garden after their visit to the event. Visitors are welcome to take a guided tour of the House itself, making for a great day all round at Fota.”

Gerry Harford, Show Secretary of The Irish Specialist Nurseries Association and Chairman of The Rare and Special Plant Fair, added: ‘The Fota Plant Fair is always one of the must do shows for our members to travel to and exhibit in. Being at the start of the season there is always a huge variety of interesting plant specimens available to those eager gardening enthusiasts who come in such large numbers each year.”

Always a great day out and the start of plant purchases for the year!

Plant of the week

Tulips are coming into their own after a pretty sodden start to flowering, they are getting their time to shine.

Spring bulbs are so resilient to whatever the weather throws at them but a bit of dry and sunny weather does help to appreciate the flower display at its best.

A pretty cheerful cultivar is Tulip ‘Calgary Flames’ with its white petals marked with banana yellow flames. They are quite compact getting to about 30cm tall so are ideal for a pot display.

Will do best in a free draining soil or compost in a sunny aspect. Plant in November for best result.