GINA PARKINSON finds the year is racing ahead as we approach the end of April

IT’S STRANGE how time seems slow at the beginning of the year, yet by the time we get to April the days are whizzing by and before we know it yet another month has passed by.

So it is that this is the last Saturday before we get to another month and things are getting busy in the garden.

Our gardens are looking very green with plants following their inevitable course as sap rises and days lengthen. Birds begin singing in the early hours, guarding territory and calling for a mate, and the occasional fat bumble bee and butterfly are encouraged from their hiding places by the warming sun.A small bed I renovated a couple of months ago has become a minifeature in our garden this monthIt surrounds an auricula theatre my dad made and now the potted inhabitants of the shelves have come into flower this shady spot is looking its best.

Around the feet of the auriculas grow dark-flowered hellebores, primulas, pulmonarias and euphorbias, recently joined by red, yellow and orange tulips. These bulbs are unexpected, the damp shade doesn’t seem the best spot and I can’t remember putting them in.

However, they have presented us with a perfect transitory moment.

Their colours pick out a tiny red dot in the dark-leafed euphorbia the stems of which echo the deep colour of the nearby hellebore.

In the vegetable garden ALTHOUGH there is so much happening in the flower beds the veg garden looks quite bare. The potatoes are in but hidden underground so at first glance there seems little to see in our patch.

However things are about to change with beetroot and radishes, peas and parsnips, spinach and chard all ready to be sown. I like to sow some vegetable seeds straight into the garden but always have a few sown in pots too as a backup.

Pigeons and mice are terrible seed robbers, we lost a whole crop of broad beans last year to a small thief.

This is our fourth summer of having a veg garden and things are slowly beginning to make sense.

Inexperience can make choice a problem, there are so many seeds and plants available and so much differing advice.

However, I now know that for us potatoes are an annual must as are broad beans, French beans and beetroot. Leafy veg favourites are chard and spinach.

Things to avoid in our garden are carrots, they are infested with carrot fly too quickly, and onions as we have white rot. Leeks seem unaffected, so we can grow those.

This year I’m going to try parsnips and really try not to grow too many runner beans. Oh and I forgot about sweet corn and lettuce and perhaps some Brussels sprouts. And tomatoes and courgettes, maybe a couple of outdoor cucumbers.

 

Coping in the shade

A GARDENING course, Choosing Plants for Shady Areas, will be held at Stillingfleet Lodge Nursery this coming Wednesday.

Nursery owner Vanessa Cook will look at choosing the right plants for these sometimes tricky areas of the garden using the many shade loving plants of Stillingfleet gardens as an illustration.

The course runs from 10am to noon and costs £30. Further details at stillingfleetlodgenurseries.co.uk or on 01904 728506.

 

Birdson walk

A GUIDED walk and illustrated talk will be held at York Cemetery on Tuesday, May 20. Organised by Friends of York Cemetery, the walk will be led by a bird song expert from the RSPB and will begin at 7pm in the Cemetery Chapel. Tickets are £3 adult, £1 child and include refreshments.

More details from the Cemetery Office 01904 610578 email: reception@ yorkcemetery.org.uk

 

Open gardens

Tomorrow

In aid of the National Gardens Scheme

Acorn Cottage, 50 Church Street, Boston Spa, LS23 6DN, one mile south of Wetherby. A fine collection of well-established alpines brought together by three generations and displayed in a garden recently altered for ease of maintenance and access. Open 12.30pm to 5pm, admission £2. Combined admission with Four Gables £4.

Four Gables, Oaks Lane, Boston Spa, LS23 6DS, two miles south east of Wetherby. Half-acre garden with specimen trees, spring flowers including hellebores, wood anemone, dicentra and fritillaria, plua, pod, well and courtyard with seating and raised beds. Open 12.30pm-5pm, admission £3. Combined admission with Acorn Cottage £4.

Langton Farm, Great Langton, DL7 0TA, five miles west of Northallerton. Organic riverside garden with formal and informal gravel areas, a nuttery and flower garden with mixed borders and a pebble pond. Open 12pm-6pm. Admission £4.

3 Pimore Cottages, Pilmore, YO61 2QQ, 20 miles north of York. Twoacre informal cottage style garden filled with specimens collected by two avid garden visitors unable to pass by the plant stall on a visit. Garden includes ponds, rockery, a clock golf putting green and miniature railway. Open 11am-5pm.Admission £3.50.

RHS Garden Harlow Carr, Crag Lane, Harrogate, HG3 1QB, off the B6162 Harrogate-Otley road. Several acres of gardens in a beautiful setting with long herbaceous borders, streamside, alpine, scented and kitchen gardens, woodland and wild flower meadows. Open 9.30am- 5pm, admission £7.70 adult, £3.85 adult.

 

TV and radio

Tomorrow

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

9am, BBC Radio York, Julia Lewis. Out and about in North Yorkshire gardens and countryside.

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

9am, BBC2, Gardeners’ World. Planting a yew hedge and a feature on the dogs tooth violet.

9.30am, The Beechgrove Garden. A visit to the community kitchen garden at Scone Palace.

2pm, BBC R4, Gardeners’ Question time. Matt Biggs, Bob Flowerdew, Anne Swithinbank and chairman Peter Gibbs are in the north east where they advise members of the audience at the Nissan car factory in Sunderland.

Tuesday

9pm, BBC4, British Gardens in Time.

A visit to Nymans in West Sussex a garden created by Messel family who came to the UK from Germany in 1870.

Friday

3pm, BBC R4, Gardeners’ Question Time. Panellists Chris Beardshaw, Pippa Greenwood and Anne Swithinbank answer questions from gardeners in Gloucestershire. With chairman Eric Robson.