The Mitcheldean Garden 2023
Later Spring

This page is part of a series of garden blogs from 2023. Click here for the index.

The tulips in front of the bungalow are the last to bloom, I think this is because this area is most exposed to cold north-east winds and also because they are 'exotics' as will be seen later. Anyway the bard had it absolutely right when he talked about 'the darling buds of May', on occasions it has felt like summer recently which will bring an end to running the central heating and sky high monthly bills. Despite appearances the sun does not always shine in Mitcheldean but unlike with steamy moving objects, you can pick your moment in a garden!

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I promise that this is the last picture this year of the 'wall bed', the red tulips are effectively over and the yellow ones will have a week or maybe two of dominance. At least until the dahlias take over, that is!

As the tulips on the patio 'droop', the geraniums in the greenhouse have been allowed out which means I can stand back just a bit for the picture, which is just as well! All over the UK, steel gas mains are being 'relined' with a plastic insert, my understanding is that these days explosions are caused more by pipe failures than by people bypassing their meters. Currently there are regular holes, one set of which seems to be where the joints are and the other where the individual supplies to houses go off. The solution to the problem suits us well as the damage to the garden would have been severe had it been dug up.

The first picture is a close up of one of the pots of tulips on the patio. The second shows a spectacular 'double' one at the front of the house. Sadly they are totally impractical, they can't support the flowers and we have to tie them to canes.

The local Lidl again had sets of tulips for a very attractive price including exotics and near exotics. Yuehong has found that planting them close together in groups works best. Behind you can see some bluebells which we introduced as seeds some time back, they will have to compete with the crocuses, grape hyacinths and daffodils. All will die back and give way to the fuchsias. 

If you look closely, you will see they are tagged with coloured string so they can be stored by type which means that they will flower together next year.

To my mind these are the best of the 'specials' they have a short stalk and show no sign of wanting to fall over. This bed next to #35 is known as being Yuehong's bed, if only because she decides what will go in it, there's a picture of it from the other side at the top. 

The pink group are the only ones yet to open, the 'dark chocolate' ones are the nearest thing to a black tulip I have ever seen, looking at them into the light you would swear that they were indeed black.

Of course, if it's May then it's bluebell time. Since we took the sycamore trees down 5 years ago they have got better and better. Until recently they were mainly confined to the open area but now they have also spread into the peony bed and have just started to cross into the top of 35's garden where, I am told, they will be very welcome.

Once upon a time we had a traditional washing line across the garden just below where the wall is now. Some time back one end fell down and we put up a rotary version next to the old greenhouse. We rescued another one from a skip which went on the patio but it was unsightly and when it blew over and broke, Yuehong shed no tears and we bought a bigger and better one. I asked her where to put it 'out of sight' and she suggested the top of the garden behind the shed. 10 years ago it would have been out of the question because it's a serious climb, more than the famous '33 steps'. All I had to do was to complete the sleeper path which I had inserted 10 years ago, fortunately the ground was less than dry and they all went in within one session. With the giant camellias, you can no longer see the top from below so it's good to have an excuse to go all the way up and it allows a compulsory 'inspection' of the rest once or twice a week. I dread to think what it costs to run a tumble drier these days, it's bad enough using a dehumidifier coupled with the central heating in a dedicated room.

If weeds are the right plants in the wrong places then as exemptions we have some cowslips and 'forget- me-nots' which have joined the primroses. They are fairly easy to control, others like buttercups, dandelions and daisies are another matter, real problems. In between are the poppies which are very pretty but they seem to have no idea of where to go and be tolerated.

May brings azaleas and rhododendrons into flower, not maybe as good as Lydney Park Gardens but probably better than anywhere in our part of Mitcheldean. These are miniature azaleas, the rest will follow soon.

We are very fond of these dwarf Scarlet Wonder rhododendrons, which are perfect for our garden. The RHS and others charge a small fortune for them but ours were variously bought for about £3 each online and as 'end of season' bargains at our local garden centre. Of course, they started smaller than they are now but will never get out of control like their big brothers.

We have dark and light lilacs down by the road, the soil can't be too good where they are but they don't seem to care. Of our eleven (!) normal rhododendrons, this white one in the lower garden is the most precocious and is usually out first. When they were first planted they were much smaller and you could walk between them. The three at the top are a headache, the largest (purple) bullies the other two however much I cut it back but they are some way off flowering at the moment.

Finally, the results of our visits to the nursery at Bromsash and Coleford Lidl are biding their time in our two greenhouses, they would variously prefer it to be a little warmer or that the hyacinths and tulips get a move on so they can occupy their space, a sentiment shared with the dahlias in the garage. There are pansies and busy lizzie. 

Lobelia and snapdragons, Yuehong's staples in the front garden along with baby begonias (not shown).

The baskets have 'million bells', when they work they flower all summer long, we have abandoned buying them online as we have had nothing but trouble with them. Our fingers are firmly crossed that a change to Lidl will give better results.

This year we have bought no new compost, the hanging baskets have been filled from reserve stock, everything else is using the recycled variety with a dash of fertiliser, not at all 'green' but shear economic necessity. We have had to cut back on this year's trips to steam rallies and the plants shown here represent a lot less than a weekend away at one on the other side of the country.