>On Saturday night I managed to sprain my knee, so my grand plans of digging up turf Sunday and Monday to get started on the turf wall didn’t happen at all. Instead I could enjoy the warmest day this spring so far, and the fact that the spring equinox means that daylight hours have passed the 12-hour mark and the days are now 5 hours and 18 minutes longer than in the bleak midwinter.
This is one of the crocuses that came along as a blind passenger when I got a load of perennials from my parents’ garden. I love how the light lends a rather luminous quality to the simple flower, and the contrast between the pale lilac petals and the bright orange stamens is just to striking for words.
And who does not love snowdrops? Ours are finally in full bloom, and it turns out there are a lot more of them than I thought; perhaps well over a hundred little white flowers are gracing the woodland patch, interspersed with brown leaves and the odd aconite. Classic spring beauty!
What else did I do? Very little, as my knee objects to any kind of bending. I did, though take stock of the seeds and bulbs and tubers and corms and plants that will go in the Ambitious Border once it has been created, and I really think we have a great chance of making a nice mixed border. Also, on my way up there I stopped by a shop and bought some more seeds and bulbs.
We must have cosmos, of course; we want to create a full, lush garden from this summer, so a tall summer annual like that it clearly a must-have. And then they had 60 mixed iris bulbs at a ridiculously low price, so even if they don’t all shoot it will still be a good buy. And some lily bulbs for the pots in the courtyard. And some glads that I feel utterly ambivalent about, but they will give tall flowers so they went in the shopping basket, too. And then a bit more of this and that…
The alium bulbs that I set in pots two weeks ago have started shooting nicely, and as there are 50 of them I think they will look striking once they get out in the beds.
And I couldn’t help take a picture of these shoots from the arum italicum; I love that colour, but they do look a bit like an alien is sticking its tentacles up through the ground in an alarming manner.
>Lovely flower shots Soren! And wishing you a speedy recovery so you can start gardening again 🙂
>Hope your knee is better soon. They can sometimes take time to heal. At least you have pretty spring blooms to make you feel a little better. That is really a pretty shot of the crocus. Brightened my day!
>sorry to hear about your knee…what we do though to still stay in touch with gardening…feel better…weather prevents me from gardening right now but I did start some seeds
>The knee will be fine quite soon; no worries. Meanwhile, there are flowers in the garden, the sun is shining and the days will continue to grow longer and soon there will be light enough in the evenings to go up there after work and potter about a bit.
>Sorry about the knee. Sometimes it's nice to just enjoy the garden without working in it. Love those red allium stems!
>It sounds like your improvised weekend was actually quite lovely, even if not what you had planned! Hope your knee mends soon. The way the crocus catches the light is really breathtaking, especially in the gentle sunlight you seem to have there.