SPRING sprang last Sunday with clear skies and plenty of warm sunshine.

Our neighbourhood hummed with mowers and drills and the happy sound of children’s shrieks of laughter.

I have been frantically decorating over the past month or so knowing the time was short for any indoor tasks that needed to be done.

Spring fever arrives quite early in our house and once the weather is halfway decent the house is neglected in favour of the great outdoors.

So the final jobs have been left for a rainy day and the grass got it’s first cut of the year last weekend.

The blades were set quite high for this initial trim as lawns tend to be lumpy after the winter.

The surface soon settles down after a few weeks of walking on it but a close first shave will scalp any high points which then take a while to recover.

Primulas are beginning to flower as the weather warms up. These spring flowers come in a rainbow of colours and are filling market stalls and nurseries with temptation.

They are wonderful specimens for hanging baskets and patio pots where the blooms will keep coming for several weeks. Deadheadingwill prolong the flowering and encourage new blooms to appear.

Full sun will be tolerated as long as the soil doesn’t dry out but partial shade is best for the more delicate looking specimens like dainty double flowered varieties such as the lilac one pictured and the pale yellow wild primrose.

Primula vulgaris grows in damp shady places or in pastures in the wild which is an indication of the position in which they will thrive in the garden. I t looks good growing with pulmonarias and dark coloured Lenten roses or with the plum and dark green hues of Euphorbia amygdaloides purpurea. Groups of these plants in a cool damp part of the garden create a beautifully relaxed display for much of the spring.

 

Ladybirds

It looks as though we will have a bumper number of ladybirds in our gardens this year if the amount sunning themselves in our garden last Sunday is anything to go by.

We have a Jerusalem sage in a hot dry bed with grey green leaves and yellow flowers held on thin stems above the foliage. It isn’t a favourite plant but it fills a tricky spot and doesn’t seem to mind the rather poor, dry soil.

However it excels as a ladybird hotel during winter with these insects hiding under the evergreen foliage or bunking up in the empty cells left once the seed has dropped from the spent flowerheads. The shrub is left untouched through winter and is only cut back once the creatures have migrated elsewhere in the garden.

 

Garden talk

The March meeting of Askham Bryan College Gardening Club will take place on Tuesday and is an illustrated talk ‘The True Cottage Garden’ by horticulturist and nursery owner Kim Hurst.

Kim and Rob Hurst established The Cottage Herbery in Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire in 1976 concentrating on growing quality herbs and aromatic and scented foliage plants. The range of plants expanded over the years and the selection now also includes hardy perennials and unusual edible plants.

The meeting begins at 7.30pm in the Conference Hall at Askham Bryan College, Askham Bryan, York, YO23 3FR. Admission is free to ABC Gardeing Clyb members, £5 on the door for visitors. Tickets include tea and coffee at the end of the evening.

Further details from David Whiteman, Publicity Officer, 01904 707208.

 

Gardening TV and Radio

Tomorrow

7.30am, BBC2, Monty Don’s Italian Gardens.

8am, BBC Radio Humberside, The Great Outdoors. With Blair Jacobs and Doug Stewart.

9am, BBC Radio York, Julia Lewis. Gardening reports and features from around North Yorkshire.

9am, BBC Radio Leeds, Tim Crowther and Joe Maiden.

9.25am, BBC2, Gardeners’ World. Monty Don tackles box blight at Longmeadow. (Repeated from Friday).

2pm, BBC R4, Gardeners’ Question Time. Panellists Chris Beardshaw, Pippa Greenwood and Anne Swithinbank answer questions from gardeners in Cheltenham. Eric Robson is in the chair. (Repeated from Friday).

Friday

3pm, BBC R4, Gardeners’ Question Time. Eric Robson, Christine Walkden, Anne Swithinbank and Bob Flowerdew meet in the potting shed at Sparsholt College, Hampshire to answer questions sent in by post, Twitter and email.

8.30pm, BBC2, Gardeners’ World. Carol Klein helps a family create a multifunctional garden and Joe Swift finds out how a Northumberland gardener copes with a wide range of seasonal temperatures