Gardening and dogs

Each year, we say “everything is early” or just as often, it seems, “everything is late”.  One of the good things about blogging is I have a record of what happened in previous years.  Now, I know that many gardeners write things down in notebooks, but I have never been very good at that and notebooks (of the traditional variety) didn’t hold pictures, unless the gardener had the time and ability to draw.

Will the peonies and iris be open in time for next weekend?

In 2013 the plants in my garden are certainly much later than feels right.  I always open my garden at the beginning of June and so this gives me a useful reference point.  Never before have  the wisteria been in flower for the visitors and the iris and peonies that are still in bud are also usually well over.  My dicentra spectabalis ‘alba’ is usually a distant memory by the time the garden opens, but this year its lovely white flowers are making a beautiful statement.

The wisteria should be the star of the show this year

Looking back I see that in 2010, I didn’t do the chop until July, so goodness knows when, and if, I will need to do it this year.

2012 was not a year for gardening.  The spring was cold and wet with some plants a month later than usual.  But then in May there was a warm, even hot, period and hose pipe bans came into force just around the time the garden opened.  The hose pipe bans did their job on Mother Nature as the heavens opened during the Royal Jubilee celebrations and it felt like it didn’t stop raining all year!

2011 was also dry Spring and I had to water for almost two months before the opening.  Of course, as luck would have it, it rained on the opening days, but at least visitors were able to see our roses in full bloom, while there is not a chance of that this year.

So, over the last four years, I have experienced one early spring and three late ones – so, is that climate change or just weather?

Usually I agonise as to whether or not to do a Chelsea Chop or not.  This is the practise of cutting back herbaceous perennials that have had their “first fling” to keep them tidy during the rest of the year and is usually done at the time of the Chelsea Flower Show, which is on this week.

The reason why I have to think long and hard about this is that my garden opening is the following week and while the plants quickly grow back, this does tend to take a couple of weeks.

In a year where everything is early, I tend to do the chop at least a week before Chelsea to give the plants time to look good again for the visitors.

This year however, everything is so late that the plants have a way to go before they put on their first show.  So, instead of having to do a Chelsea Chop, I have plenty of other jobs to do in the garden that the weather put paid to earlier in the year – thank goodness it is a Bank Holiday weekend!