Oh what a capricious time of year, as spring toys with us, flitting cruelly between a glorious taste of summer and the slap of a ten degree drop in temperature and the threat of snow next week. Today, we’re being slapped, but for the past week, we basked in the magnificent sunshine. Mind you, I did not sit on my laurels, I was busy as a bee, merrily ticking a few things off the gardening to-do list, and occasionally just stopping to marvel at the lovely things growing all around.
1 Bramble support. One big job ticked off the list. Our savage bramble, which redeems itself with the tastiest blackberries for what is probably my favourite jam, has been tamed for now, with a trellis frame. Order has been temporarily restored.
2 Tomatoes. I can not believe the rate at which these are growing. They seem to like their sunny windowsill very much. I have far too many: currently 7 cherry toms Miel de Mexique, 7 Davis all-rounders, and 5 beefsteak Portuguese. The Nostalgic Gardener has become The Generous Gardener, dolling out tomatoes to Irish neighbours and Swedish friends, and soon others from a panoply of international and Belgian residents will find themselves the recipients of green gifts.
3 Dahlia potting up. The upside of early school closures in Belgium is that I had my son on hand to help pot up the Dahlia tubers. It’s great to have a garden helper and it made the job fun and efficient: we set up a little assembly line, with my son putting the tubers in and filling with compost, and with me labelling and watering, it was all done in a flash. There are now fifteen pots – some were squeezed into the greenhouse, and these others are sitting it out against the back wall and will need to be moved into the shed when we get slapped with that threat of snow.
4 Viburnum carlesii. Onto the pretty stuff. A few days apart, photo one shows those pink buds about to burst, and then ta-daa! the tiny flowers appear daintily, and the garden is completely flooded with sweet scent on a sunny afternoon. Another name for this lovely, elegant shrub is Koreanspice Viburnum, and there is an exotic spiciness along with the intense sweetness to the perfume. When this comes into flower, it’s one of those wow moments in the garden.
5 Clematis armandii with Japanese quince. This is the clematis’ fourth week in flower, and as well as looking good, it’s combining with the quince to give the bees both a first course and mains. They are buzzing around this area non-stop. I tried to photograph them without much luck, so you’ll just have to enjoy the flowers.
6 Ferns unfurling. What, we’re at six already? Alright then, the final slot goes to the little aliens in found in conversation.
Tomorrow these little creatures may clasp a chocolate Easter egg between them, as I think a garden Easter egg hunt is in order. There may be more Easter surprises to discover on the Six on Saturday page hosted by The Propagator and enjoyed by many a gardening bunny. So it remains for me to wish you all a Happy Easter, Joyeuses Pâques, Prettig Paasfeest, may the Easter bunny be generous to you, whether in the form of tomato plants from an overly-enthusiastic gardener, or just lots of chocolate, preferably of the Belgian variety – it’s the best in the world, you know.
You win the word of the day award with ‘capricious.’ The clematis and quince are looking great together and your Viburnum carlesii is ahead of mine – it’s one of my favourites. After seeing your nicely labelled potted up dahlias I feel rather ashamed with my shoddy labelling efforts!
Ooh thank you, I like a good word (don’t we all). This must be the first time ever something in my garden is ahead of yours – funnily enough, on your blog post, there are Easter posts at the bottom from 2 years back on this day, both showing your Viburnum, so I did wonder why it wasn’t featuring. There you have it, official proof that this year everything’s behind!
I agree with Graeme, capricious is a great word! You toms look so strong, lucky neighbours I say. Nice pretty’s as well as all the potential of those pots of dahlias makes me drool a little. Happy Easter to you too, are you allowed to find the eggs too?
Thanks, and I feel thrilled by the dahlia potential too. A chocolate bunny – of the variety featured on Padraig’s post today – will be hidden for me to find, fear not. 🙂
Glad to hear it, I wouldn’t like to think you will go without. Have fun
I have tomato envy. After an unsuccessful attempt to grow them from a delicious variety kept from a supermarket vine last year, I sowed some from a packet I bought recently……I’m still holding me breath. Lovely clematis and quince.
I wish you luck with this year’s tomato growing. I heard that the problem with supermarket fruit is that sometimes they are harvested before fully ripening, meaning the seed isn’t fully developed. Perhaps that’s what went wrong, not your technique.
Indeed, your tomatoes are a little ahead of mine as well as the dahlias. Mine are still dormant so I’ll have to take care of them this weekend. Very nice set of quince flowers and Armandii clematis !
Onr again you did a great job in your garden. I thinks the brambles will be happy and your tomato plant look great, they grow like beans. Your neighbours and friends will be happy with the gifts 🙂
How dare you…. letting children do the work … LOL ha ha ha Covid has it’s advantages 🙂
I hope there will be no damage due to the comming cold. For tomorrow, happy Easter with lots of hidden eggs. 😉
Thanks Rudi, don’t worry the helper will get his reward 😆Happy Easter to you too!
Oh so wonderful to have the tomatoes and the blossoms promising of tasty summer salad and jams my sweetpea in a hanging basket looks well by the window. Happy gardening
Very nice Viburnum. I think they’re all pretty nice, but carlesii is a particularly good one.
The tomatoes look in very good nick. I have the same problem of having grown a few too many!
Thanks I agree Viburnums are lovely. A well-meaning member of my gardening group gave me yet more tomatoes today!
Nice bramble supports. I only just planted our tomato seeds inside.
I think you have a longer winter, but the main thing is we will all have tomatoes.
Prettig Paasfeest, a chara. Have a good one!
You will have a superb show when those dahlias start blooming. Your helper definitely needs some chocolate for his efforts… preferably Belgian, as you advise… I needed to eat some rather than let it melt in the glasshouse. Not my thing, but had to be done.
Of course, you had no choice! 😉
The clematis and quince are looking great together, proof that you should not remove the quince! Is your blackberry thorny then? I have a thornless one which usually produces lots of berries for me, though it didn’t put much growth on last year and the fruit forms on the new stems.
Is it thorny? I should have taken a photo of my hands after the job was done, not pretty. I think this is a semi-wild one, maybe even a totally wild one, but the harvest is usually huge so I forgive. Yes, I suppose the quince has got a reprieve!
Plenty of the thorny ones in the lanes for me to pick, though the berries aren’t as big.
It is great your son helped you in the garden. … we can’t have too many garden gnomes at this time of year 🙂
Your tomato seedlings look nice and healthy. I’m am trying to stagger the planting this year so I have an early and late crop.
You are lucky to have a willing garden helper. I was admiring your colourful labels.
The tomato plants are looking great. Whoever gets one of those is a lucky person.
Happy Easter, Sel! It’s wonderful that the return of spring gives us the rebirth of plant life.
Thanks Steve, happy Easter to you too, hope you have some time off to enjoy spring where you are and hope the weather is kind to you!
The trellis for your blackberry looks marvelous. The leaves of the viburnum have a lovely shape and texture that I had not noticed before. Clematis armandii and quince combine remarkably well – the coral of the one bringing out the blush of the other, the clematis providing a delicate veil behind which the tangle of quince sticks is a pleasing backdrop. Well done.
Thank you, it was an accidental combo, am lucky that the clematis decided to grow in the general direction of the quince, perhaps they wanted to be together 😉
I must go to the garden to sniff the viburnum!
Do, it’s incredible!
A great selection Cal. The Quince is gorgeous. Does it have prickles? I believe there are some sorts without now. I had the same problem with tomato seedlings last year and was unable to meet anyone to give them away! So I spent all summer tying in and watering tomatoes and froze loads and loads of tomato sauce and soup! Good to think of summer when the weather is still dodgy. Hope you get some warm sunshine again soon. Happy Easter!
Thanks Cathy, thankfully the Quince is prickle-free – the bramble more than makes up for it. In some ways you can never have too many tomatoes, but we gardeners know how much hard work goes into the results! But it’s so nice to enjoy a homemade tomato sauce out of the freezer in winter…
Absolutely. We had our last tomato soup last week! 😉
I reckon that sturdy new trellis will be just the thing your bramble needs! The viburnum is spectacular, and I can just imagine it’s perfume through the garden. As for the Clematis, it is amazing!
Thank you, the Clematis did so well, though now it’s dropping its lovely petals, signalling the show is over. Happily the Viburnum is taking up the mantle.
Hi Sel, I’m with you on the garden helpers. It’s amazing how quickly some jobs get done with two pairs of hands. I also like to be alone with my thoughts in the garden but when lots needs to be done then I try and get one of my teenagers to help.
I am very taken with your viburnum. That’s a new one for me but it’s a real beauty!
They sometimes need a bit of persuading, these teenage helpers 😉
Spring looks firmly settled in your garden, and I admire all you have accomplished towards the season ahead! It helps to have an enthusiastic helper! Your friends are fortunate to have such a generous gardener friend. Many, many miles away, across the pond, we had the same weather whammy last week after some gorgeous days in the 80s. We had several nights near or below freezing and cold winds with rain- snow near us. Somehow the early flowers manage as the cooler weather slaps us around a bit. Your bramble support is a work of art. Happy Easter!
Thank you for your kind words! It’s getting very cold here today, but we did manage a competitive Easter egg hunt in the garden, and now I’m keeping warm indoors with my stash of chocolate eggs. You are right that the flowers seems to manage just fine, mostly.
I enjoyed this post very much, especially the “savage bramble” — well described! Happy Spring
Thanks Lisa, happy spring to you too.