Easter Sunday! Garden shopping’s big weekend. Nurseries and garden centres at their busiest. Endless trays of seedlings carried to cars. There will be bootfuls of new tools and plants and potting compost. (Though peat-free only please.)
Gardens are waking, trees are budding, weeds stirring. It’s getting time to get to work. At our house it’s all about the flower pots at the moment. Our roof terrace has come alive. There’ll soon be summer work to do.
Meanwhile, the magnolia stellata is still in full flower. The blue muscari are up like toadstools. The David Austin roses are covered in baby buds and fresh green leaf. The Bengal Crimson is pumping out blooms.
Our dark hellebore is still thrumming. The geum has started snaking budding stems. The potted bulbs are wide awake. Assorted tulips and narcissi, layered as ever lasagne-style. I wander around, noting the smallest changes, most early mornings to the soundtrack of birds.
We have followed the old edict on the large lavender: trim back in autumn, prune in spring. We will wait a little on geraniums but we’ve overwintered them for a few years now and have a mind for a change.
I have a yen – again – for old-school scarlet geranium with deep blue hanging lobelia for the front windowboxes, perhaps cascading ivy-leaf geranium for the back. Though such early plans are often sidetracked by the sight of a different-hued happy plant. Or whatever Henri wants.
So we will stop off at our favourite Camden Garden Centre, celebrating 40 years this year, in search of new colour and inspiration. Though we will likely leave it for another week or two until the frenzy calms.
The allotments too will be busier too as plot holders return to make their beds. We’ll keep a close eye on each other’s plans and planting. What grows where.
The new gardening year has truly started. Happy Easter everyone.
Allan Jenkins’s Plot 29 (4th Estate, £9.99) is out now. Order it for £8.49 from guardianbookshop.com
