After the brief interruption, let's get back to the story of how the garden evolved. Last time out, I was talking about how the wildlife was starting to show up and how we'd wrapped up the year. Over that winter, not much had gone on - a quiet family xmas, nobody travelling because of lockdown, and another quiet new year. I'd drunk a lot of rum, but that was just for fun. In the new year, I started a new job as well - my previous employer was still struggling with the travel restrictions, and the pay cut was too much to keep living with, so I sadly had to bid them adieu and move onto newer things. This time, the office was a short hop on the train away, but I still got to work remotely so I had the best of both worlds on that score. I planted out some early bulbs, so it was a case of waiting to see what showed up.
One of the first things to emerge was a small grouping of iris reticulata which we'd selected because of the name - Pauline. My wife's nan was called Pauline, and they're such a gorgeous purple colour that we really couldn't resist. They're just vibrant and full of colour, and they're also gone far too soon like the good lady herself. They're not the only memorial flower in the garden, but more on that side of things will follow in the future so I won't go into more detail just yet.
Aren't they gorgeous little things?
The early part of the year also shows up some of my other favourites, too:
Pulsatilla vulgaris, but there's nothing vulgar about them at all
Also known as the pasque flower, they're basically easy as pie to look after - stick 'em in the ground and leave 'em alone. My kind of flower! I've tried collecting seeds from them once they've gone over, but not had much luck so far - they're one of those than need a period of cold before they germinate, so I'm hoping the chill over winter will help on that score.
A favourite of my wife and myself, snakehead fritillaries are lovely early bulbs that need no looking after at all
Snakehead fritillaries are another easy-to-look after thing, although if you ever think about growing some from seed be aware that these things can take years to grow to a decent size. However, if they're happy, they'll naturalise and come back year after year with no interference from you.
The wildlife was starting to come in - and we had a hedgehog!
Aside from the odd butterfly, we also had a visit from a hedgehog. Actually, that reminds me - I still need to adjust the fence to have a hedgehog hole so they can get into the back at some point.
I basically took it fairly easy over the first few months of the year while things were settling - but once the weather got better, I started to get back into the swing of things. Remember those scaffold boards I mentioned? Well, that's where things started...
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