At last, a weekend without snow and/or rain, and with the sun shining, it’s feeling like spring! However, the garden is looking drab and bedraggled what with the weather and the erection of a new fence around two sides last week and so first task was a bit of a clear up and a trip to the tip. In addition to rather a lot of -rubble and ivy lying around, a lot of stomping around by the workmen has left shrubs on the perimeter looking worse for wear – and there is also quite a lot of frost damage to new leaves. Still, a couple of hours hard graft by Chris has made a difference and all is looking well now.

Now that the new fence is up, we’ve had the stump of a dead birch removed and filled the gaping hole left behind with a lovely rowan. The day we planted it, by coincidence and unbeknown to me, our daughter’s boyfriend proposed to her –  a good omen surely that both the tree and their relationship will flourish and thrive!

The tree should give us spring and autumn colour as well as some cover from houses over the road. There is still room for a small shrub, I’m giving some serious thought to this as I don’t want to put unnecessary strain on the tree by putting in a greedy competitor for space, nutrients and water.

I’ve been intending to plant out this beautiful acer palmatum ‘Sango-kaku’, which has been in a pot for 3 years and was in desperate need of more space. I’m hoping it’ll settle in this spot and compliment the hot coloured plants I usually grow along this border.

To try and give it a good start, we followed Monty Don’s advice (Gardener’s World on Friday evening), and did not put any compost or fertiliser in the base of the planting hole – to encourage the roots to spread out, but added mycorrhizal to the root ball.

We also planted out a horribly pot bound fatsia japonica – I don’t hold out much hope for this poor specimen, but we’ll wait and see if giving it some TLC results in recovery.

My final job of the day was to plant a pot for spring colour on the back doorstep – a lovely combination of primula, pansies and grape hyacinth brought a smile to my face!