My Little Garden in Week 1 of Lockdown
As I write this at the end of August, I remember that the first week of lockdown felt very surreal. From following the progress of Coronavirus in the news to feeling the impact on our daily lives was just immense. We no longer had any grandchild minding responsibilities and it was sad to think that we wouldn’t be able to see the family, but at this stage we held onto the hope that the situation would be reviewed in three weeks time.
With the golf course closed, the husband had far too much time on his hands, so along with seemingly every other household in the area, he started on a campaign of jet washing the paving, and clearing out the garage. (The latter was not ideal as the local tip was closed, but it didn’t stop him doing important work in rearranging the things that we needed to get rid of!) The only positive was that we started to go on daily walks together as part of the new routine and discovered many local walks we never knew existed. Every cloud as they say …..
Fortunately for my sanity, the garden was coming to life and even if paid work was likely to be minimal I still had plenty to do at home.
These are my retrospective choices for the first week of lockdown.
1.The amelanchier is starting to flower and it’s always a joy to see some blossom in the garden.
2. The first bright yellow leaves have started to appear on the philadelphus. This shrub provides a lovely backdrop to summer perennials but I like it best when the leaves first open and it has that lovely fresh spring colour. The Wood Anemones that are in the header photo grow just underneath it as do snowdrops a little earlier in the year.
3. The first flowers have appeared on the Camellia. I’m not sure what variety this is because I’ve had it so long but it thrives in it’s sunny west facing position in the garden.
4. In the centre of this picture is the perennial wallflower I bought from Bud Garden Centre just before lockdown. I eventually moved it to another position but as I am writing this blog retrospectively I can tell you that it’s still flowering at the end of August. Very impressive.
5. This is a view across the south facing bed. The Narcissi are Jet Fire and a few persistent Tete a Tete that used to grow under the acer that was here until a couple of years ago. Lots of tulips will take over in the next few weeks.
6. And my final offering is one of my new Hellebore purchases. In a pot for the time being it promised to provide some spring like joy for weeks to come.
And onwards to Week 2….
