LittleErnie's Blog

After the warmth it became cold and wet but the weeds still grew. I have caught up with the back garden. Must explain a back yard in England is a small concrete or brick paved area particularly in older terraced houses that did not have gardens. So back garden it is to me but yard to you. It matters not whatever its at the back of the house. If you have been watching the Chelsea Flower show on the internet (www.bbc.co.uk)you will here of courtyard gardens. These are posh (There's an English. English word) back yards with some soil and loads of container plants usually found in very expensive houses of the Victorian age in London. Call it what you will if it can accommodate plants its OK.

The country side is beautiful now with May Blossom in the hedges, Horse Chestnuts with white or Red spikes of flowers, the bluebells in the woods and the Dog Daisies in the borders of lanes and young bright green leaves all around. The fields are a patchwork of yellow with Oil Seed Rape and in the East Mustard. My Alpines are excellent and the welsh Poppies are brilliant yellow. I have boughy some Icelandic poppies and they come in various hues but not blue. I have tried to grow the blue Himalayan Poppy but without success. The Oriental poppies have just started to blume in vivid crimson. The Lilacs have just finished but the perfume lingers on.

Many fuchsias survived the winter and are growing well as did the perennial geraniums. I purchased masses of plug plant pelargoniums, kept them in the house until the weather changed and since potting up they have developed into strong plants.

The strawberries have been covered in blossom and are now bearing green fruit so they are being fed and watered. Same with the gooseberries that have responded well to the change in the weather,

The sad news is that my elder sister - an expert on Mushrooms - is very ill and she has said her goodbyes.

Its been quite a year so far. As for the oil spill we are all concerned over here because our coasts have suffered many times with tanker wrecks.

Keep your trowels polished and massage your knees.

LE