The Mitcheldean Garden 2026
All in a May Morning

This page is part of a series of garden blogs from 2026. Click here for the index.

The tulips occupied centre stage for most of April and neither of us was feeling particularly energetic, it wasn't cold but it was cool for much of the time. Yuehong was keeping herself busy in the greenhouse and I cut the grass regularly and nibbled at the backlog which had developed in the early Spring. The title is a play on the title of the beautiful song 'All in an April Evening'.

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I'm not sure why, but one morning in mid-May I was awake bright and early and looking through the curtains I could see a perfect blue sky in every direction. I grabbed my dressing gown and camera and went out to record the scene. It was just before 07.00 and as I went down the steps, nothing in our part of the village was stirring, not even the resident cats. BB is now 13 years old but you wouldn't guess it. The camellias here have finished and the honeysuckle is biding its time, but the potentillas all had a big smile on their faces. Just behind them the two lilacs were also very happy. Normally the light purple one is the more precocious but for the first time, the white one was the star. 

I would normally use the epithet 'low key' to describe the lower section of our garden adjacent to 31's barren waste. The French roses there haven't been touched for more than 15 years and it shows. It wouldn't take long for the lower area of ours to become a complete mess too. If I need a reminder of what might happen, I need only to look at the jungle that is 39 just down the road which is yet again on sale having apparently exhausted yet another optimistic owner, the interior is still 'unfinished business'. 37 had a black plastic sheet over it for a year or two but the weeds just grew through it. 35 has neat and tidy front grass but the back is 'teetering' on the brink'... 31 has been sold, we have yet to see the new owner although someone did come in while we were away to cut the grass and the other side of the leylandii hedge. The good news is that the new owner of 29 is actively giving it a much needed makeover.

The red small flowered fuchsia needed a cut, it's a hedge in all but name. Behind the camellias on both sides of the steps are two groups of rhododendrons which we planted too close together. They have flowers, the white ones in quantity but they are almost invisible from anywhere except when climbing the front steps and from the front lawn looking down from where they look quite attractive. Necessarily the white magnolia has long finished flowering and is challenging me to trim it. This is a reminder of what the 'front of house' looked like in April. Eventually, as the petals dropped in the middle of May, Yuehong demanded that I dig it all up so she could bring out the summer bedding plants from the greenhouse.

This is what it looked like afterwards . Almost all the azaleas were relocated to the upper garden last year (see below) and the newcomers look much smaller than they did in the greenhouse! They will take a few weeks to settle... It's early days for the hanging baskets.

Yuehong has been busy shuffling the patio pots and putting out the hanging baskets there too - they will feature next time. Her favourite geraniums took exception to her absence and have been supplemented. The various small dahlias which enjoy the winter comfort in the green house are just poking their heads up in their pots unlike the larger ones which had to be abandoned outdoors and have almost all rotted away. To be honest most were very tired and we'll think about replacing them in due course, maybe when Penang is no longer a winter option. One happy plant is the patio clematis, we have another similar one by the summer house. Also on the patio are miscellaneous begonias which now need supplementing as we haven't bought any for quite a few years. The 'front of house' azaleas have been awarded positions on the bank between the 'veg patch' and the summer house. This pink one thought it a very good idea!

There are quite a few azaleas in the rockery on the left looking up, but every year I have to clear the weeds around them. I wouldn't call them precocious but they are all well established and each year seem to be more colourful. Look carefully and you will see two unusual yellow ones, we were inspired to buy them by those in Lydney Park Gardens.

Let's just say that the 'middle garden' is in transition. The Aubrieta has been given more room and behind, the Scarlet Wonder dwarf rhododendrons continue to do battle with the peonies, fortunately the latter flower about a month later. You can see the small azaleas in the slope which, fingers crossed, they will enjoy more than the front of the house as there is no chance they will have to drink tap water at all there. My hope is that we will soon be thinning them out and moving some of them to the slope on the right.

Here are a couple of fillers. On the left, we have a second hawthorn hedge right at the top of the garden which can flower freely as I cut it just one a year. Google says that the other plant is known as 'Snow in Summer', it appears in the upper garden in various palces as it pleases. Everywhere are bluebells dying back, by the middle of June they will be ready to be cut back 

Almost at the top, are the 'tail end Charlies'. On the left is the giant purple rhododendron which we inherited and is now 'Lydney size'. It must be 5 times as big in every direction as it was when we first arrived. It's companion is naturally more modest in size, we have a similar smaller one in the lower garden. The third rhododendron is always a later flowering red one but can just be seen on the far left. It has spread downwards and I think it is now at the critical size when it will 'explode'...

Finally, the peonies are coming on well, this one was rescued from the public garden next to the village church. There are many more to come soon...

The rhododendron situation in the lower garden is 'interesting". There are three of them right up against two camellias, visible from above but invisible from the road. A fourth one is some way to the right and lower down next to the honeysuckle and garage.

Thw question is whether to prune the cammellias as I did the ones on the other side of the steps. By their nature the lilacs are likely to be less of an issue, I would be able to prune any side shoots from the main branches. Anyway, this is how they look now, excellent! At the same time, it seems likely that we shall have a magnolia crisis within a few years as they are all showing signs of imminent growth spurts and we have one in the back which is more than six foot high!

The hebes on the steps are definitely past their 'best before date' and I finally acceded to Yuehong's demands to do something about them. As I started to snip it became clear that the rhododendrons at the bottom were enjoying their best ever year. Just one other 'snip' was needed, the camellias behind the fuchsia hedge... The result was extraordinary. I wonder how many of the daily dog walkers noticed the 'overnight change'?

It's all very different from 15 years ago after we moved in (below left, November 2011), the soil here is not good (builders' rubble?) and the other picture shows the bank with all the current occupants in position but considerably smaller (June 2017).

The garden which it once seemed would be difficult to fill is now bursting at the seams.

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