Chronicle March 2014 | Chronicles

PICTURES

April 2014

Warmest greetings, dear gardening friends!

Today is Maundy Thursday, 17 April 2014, so I’d like to wish a happy Easter to those who celebrate the festival, as well as Chag Sameach to those who celebrate the Jewish festival of Passover. It’s now early afternoon and we’ve just returned from the garden centre, laden with sacks of cow manure, as well as rose fertiliser, rhododendron fertiliser, and other goodies for the garden. It's a very good idea to spread a 5-7 cm layer of cow manure on the flower beds in the spring, and then water thoroughly so that the fertiliser really goes down into the soil.

How the garden is blooming at the moment! Spring scents permeate the entire garden. The final crocuses are in the course of saying farewell and adieu for this year, and it feels so strange that the amazing crocus season we've experienced for the past month and a half will shortly be a thing of the past, preserved only in memories and photographs. Each season brings with it its own delights, and only yesterday I was talking with some close friends about the art of keeping the garden going from the beginning of the year to the end. It's an art in itself. In my humble opinion, I think that I've succeeded pretty well, but there are always more things to do.

It's now the turn of the hyacinths to be the stars of the show in the garden. The scents are heavenly. I planted some 200 hyacinths in the autumn, mainly my old favourite, the white Carnegie, but also quite a few blue Blue Pearl bulbsand a handful of Pink Pearl. Hyacinths can return in subsequent years, with diminishing flower size, so I treat them as annuals and plant new bulbs every year. What's important is to avoid planting hyacinths in the same spot every year.

I also have to say a word in favour of anemones. They belong to the windflower family, but are much larger than the wild flowers. At the moment there are thousands of anemones in bloom in the garden, radiating an extraordinary beauty in swathes beneath the trees and bushes. Although we've planted several different species, the main ones are anemon blanda White Splendour, unbroken white and anemon blanda Blue Shades (which, as the name indicates, consist of various hues of blue).

The fruit garden to the front of the house (with its apple, pear and plum trees, as well as grapevines and gooseberry bushes  — is that the moment home to an amazing floral mix comprising the last of the crocuses, the newly blooming hyacinths, muscari armeniacum (grape hyacinths), various tulips, anemones, daffodils, and masses of blue scilla. Beloved spring – welcome.

As you might know, we are sometimes slightly (or very) late in publishing new photos (of the highest professional standard, taken by Solveig) and blogs here on the website. But now we can also be followed on Instagram (Agentlemansgarden) and Facebook (gentlemans garden and gentgard.se), where we are attempting to present new postings and pictures (taken by me, not Solveig) at least once a week. In other words, it's now possible to follow the rapid changes in the garden almost continuously. Finally, I'd like to mention that the latest issue of the Hemträdgården magazine, which in fact comes out today, contains a 2-page article about A Gentlemans Garden. Don't miss it!

It's now time for me to pop off to the nearby forest and pick a few nettles (they make great soup)...

 Keep well!

Stefan, A Gentleman Gardener