A good friend kindly brought me some coppiced hazel peasticks today to support my tall perennials before disaster strikes in May. Normally I am way too late putting any supports in. I wait until it’s too late and then prop things up. What a mess! I am gradually learning that a stitch in time saves nine and putting the supports in early.

I was pleased with how the birch circle responded to having six inches of garden compost heaped on it in November. I cleared almost everything above ground apart from the three immature Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’ which I hope will eventually provide winter contrast to the Jacquemontii silver birches. I then emptied three barrow loads of compost over the whole area because it had become impossible to weed amongst the surface roots of the birches. The anemone blanda and narcissus have come through without any trouble as well as the inevitable lesser celandines. It looks great at the moment and I just hope the hairy bittercress and chickweed are reduced this year. 

I have given up the battle with lesser celandines in the photinia hedge border; it is a battle I was losing anyway because the root tubers are soil coloured and therefore impossible to identify. The recommended treatment is Glyphosate but that would kill everything else including the anemone blanda which, actually, looks good with the yellow celandine flowers! And anyway, by June all the foliage is gone and I forget them for another year.

These wild primroses are everywhere at the moment and multiply like mad in my sticky clay soil. Once the flowers are over I split the clumps and transplant them under the hedges to spread them round a bit. It’s one of the joys of Spring.