Garden fires up at last

IT’S Bank Holiday Monday as I write, the early morning sky is blue and the sun has lit up the garden, damp from a cool night. We had a bonfire the day before and the air at the bottom of the garden still has a tang of smoke.

The piles of branches that had waited since last summer to be burnt have been reduced to a pile of grey ash. It is astonishing to think the mass of debris that had accumulated has become so small.

I’m not used to having bonfire space and am scared of a fire, so a bucket of water, a pile of old wet carpet and a spade and heap of soil were near at hand in case things got out of control.

We also dug a deep pit in which to build the fire to keep things within bounds.

Thicker stems and trunks take a little while to catch, but watch out for dry leylandii twigs or evergreens that have kept hold of their leaves as they have desiccated. These will go up in an instant, the flames reaching scarily high and potentially able to catch hold of nearby overhanging trees.

Until recently it felt our gardens would never recover from the long winter and cold early spring, but here we are in the fifth month of the year and nature is quickly catching up with herself. She has thrown off the covers and leapt into action and pots and beds and borders are filling with colour and foliage.

Favourite combinations are appearing again, forgotten about for a year and emerging for a short while until they are replaced by the next one. One of my spring favourites is a cottage garden combination of two common plants, native primrose and pulmonaria.

We have a few clumps of these primroses around the garden and many pulmonaria which have self-seeded throughout the beds. There is often a slight variation in flower colour and leaf form of the pulmonaria; some of the foliage is more silvered, while in another plant it will be very spotted.

The flowers range from deep blue and pink to lighter shades of these colours, but I think they are all seedlings from Pulmonaria officinalis. Other plants we have in this family seem to be much better behaved and spread very slowly; any seedlings that do pop up tending to be the same as the parent.

There is also a variation in the colour of the primroses from pale creamy yellow to rich egg-yolk gold. I think in this case that they are varieties of Primula vulgaris rather than seedlings, but they all share the same neat clumps of light-green crinkled foliage among which appear the short-stemmed single blooms.

Both of these plants seem to be able to cope with most situations, but they look their best in damp partial shade. Here the foliage and flowers stay bright and fresh and are occasionally lit by shafts of soft sunlight.

• Weekend catch-up

NOW the weather is warming it is time for a trip to the nursery or garden centre for summer bedding plants. It is still a little early to put them into the garden as there is a chance of frost or low temperatures in our area until the end of May. For the moment they can be put outside during the day and brought indoors for the night before putting them in their permanent positions in a couple of weeks.

Open gardens

Today

In aid of the National Gardens Scheme

Cold Cotes, Cold Cotes Road, nr Kettlesing, HG3 2LW, seven miles west of Harrogate off the A59. Large peaceful garden with expansive views, stream-side walk, pond, bog garden and woodland garden under-planted with bulbs and perennials. Nursery also open. Open 11am-5pm, admission £3.50.

Tomorrow

Four Gables, Boston Spa, LS23 6DS, one mile south east of Wetherby. A half-acre garden surrounding an Arts and Crafts house (not open) with some original hard landscaping densely planted in the style of William Robinson’s wild garden. There are also water features, ponds, a well, and courtyard with seating. Open 12.30pm to 5pm, admission £3.

Low Hall, Dacre Banks, Nidderdale, HG3 4AA, ten miles north west of Harrogate. A romantic walled garden with spring bulbs, rhododendrons, azaleas, a water garden, rose pegola underplanted with auriculas, extensive borders and shrubs. Open 1.30pm to 5pm, admission £3. Within visiting distance of Woodlands Cottage.

Stillingfleet Lodge, Stewart Lane, Stillingfleet, YO19 6HP, six miles south of York on the B1222. Large garden with an area subdivided into smaller plots each based on a colour scheme, a wild flower meadow, natural pond, double herbaceous borders, modern rill garden and rare breed poultry wandering around the gardens. Adjacent nursery also open. Open 1pm to 5pm, admission £4.50 adult, 50p child.

Woodlands Cottage, Summerbridge, Nidderdale, HG3 4BT, ten miles north west of Harrogate. A one-acre garden with natural rock formations, woodland with wild bluebells, rock garden, wild flower meadow, formal herbaceous areas and vegetable garden. Open 1.30pm to 5pm, admission £3. Within visiting distance of Low Hall.

Gardening TV and radio

Tomorrow

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

8.15am, BBC2, Gardeners’ World. The team visit the Malvern Spring Gardening Show.

9am, BBC Radio York, Mark Forrest. Mark presents his weekly programme of gardens and gardening advice.

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

9.30am, BBC2, The Beechgrove Garden. Chris Beardshaw visits the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale Farm in Kent.

2pm, BBC R4, Gardeners’ Question Time. Eric Robson and his panel of experts answer questions from the audience at the Food and Environment Agency in Sand Hutton.

Friday

3pm, BBC R4, Gardeners’ Question Time. A postbag edition from Sparsholt College in Hampshire with Eric Robson, Matt Biggs, Pippa Greenwood and Christine Walkden.

8.30pm, BBC2, Gardeners’ World. Monty Don plants clematis and Carol Klein looks into the history of magnolias and the plant hunters who introduced them to the UK.