Spring at last!

Willow

Finally spring has sprung and the garden is growing at full gallop. The joy of the new buds and unfurling leaves is so welcome this year after our remarkably long winter.

Our precious little Ginkgo biloba and the surrounding hedges of Hawthorn and Elder have come into leaf, the apple trees are covered in blossom and the herb circle is coming alive as the plants push through the surface of the nicely warmed soil.

Apple blossom

The garden is teaming with bees enjoying the ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea) as it gathers pace in its apparent quest to cover the garden and pink deadnettle (Lamium purpureum), which is popping up in all the free space in the herb beds. Since early March these two seem to have been the main source of food for the bees.

Ground ivy

The rapid rate of growth over the last month has been astonishing to observe.  Some plants such as Angelica archangelica and Comfrey (Symphytum officinale) appear to doubling in size every few days.  Common Figwort  (Scrophularia nodosa), which wasps adore in the summer, is useful, pretty and prolific. The imported dandelions are doing well and happily I have found the first shoot of Licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) suggesting that it has made it through the cold winter on the South Downs.

Angelica

I have planted beds of Calendula, Borage, Sunflowers and a few Milk thistle seeds from last year’s crops that have germinated and produced shoots within a matter of days this month. It is wonderful to see and to start to recognise the distinguishing features of even the tiniest shoots as they appear.

I am noticing that some seeds though, are taking a couple of years to germinate.

For example, a nursery bed I fully expected to be full of self-seeded Sunflowers this year from last year’s crop is instead full of tiny Poppies (Papavar somniferum) self-seeded from a lone beautiful poppy that had appeared in the lawn between the beds in 2011 and amongst them there are a handful of St John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum) plantlets that were sown from bought seed also in 2011.

Ladies mantle with morning dew

The pond, which was dug this time last year, is absolutely teaming with life. I am delighted to report that the resident frog, which was rescued from a bunker in Brighton last April, is still with us and now we have a full complement of newts, water boatmen and hundreds of tadpoles. It is however getting covered with green algae, which I have been told may be in part due to the fact that it doesn’t have much shade and that a solution to this is to introduce straw to the pond as the algae is drawn to and clings to it. Any tips on this gratefully received. For the moment though I have elected to leave it as it is, as the algae appears to be providing very good shelter, hiding opportunities and possibly food for the otherwise vulnerable tadpoles.

During April we have created a new garden bordering the chalky bank. We are planning to populate it with indigenous wildflowers with the help of a local expert in this field, from Stanmer nurseries. I am very excited to see this garden come into being and hope to provide photos shortly.

My favourite herb of the month has to be Cleavers (Galium aparine). We have been drinking gallons of Cleavers tea fresh from the garden over the last few weeks. I think it has a lovely delicate taste.

Cleavers

This is nothing new for the herbalist’s amongst you, but if you haven’t tried them before now is a good time to gather the young shoots for juicing or popping into salads before they become too fibrous and stringy.

They have wonderful health benefits and are commonly used as a spring tonic to cleanse the lymphatic system after winter.