Welcome to the first full month of spring! and as I’ve said in my stories a few times, “welcome to another episode of look at my mud – a series where we proud gardeners all show our little pots of mud with seeds or seedlings and how well they’re growing, until we’re ready to plant them out after the last frosts*”

*this is meant to be funny

All joking aside, what’s up with this weather!! Honestly, it’s rained most of this year so far and we’re only three months in! As the Dutch saying goes
“Aprilletje zoet geeft soms nog wel eens een witte hoed.” – translation “April so sweet, sometimes still gives a white hat.” Meaning that even though the weather in April is usually mild, it can still sometimes snow ❄️ or rain lots like it’s doing.

In April 1st this year we have just had the clocks change to an hour going forward, April fools and Easter Monday. On the 9th we see the end of Ramadan which will be celebrated as Eid al-Fitr begins at the sighting of the crescent moon 🌙 St Tiburtius’ Day on the 14th is when cuckoos start singing (traditionally). Passover/Pesach begins at sundown with the Seder feast for Jews on the 22nd. St George’s day – patron saint of England is on the 23rd which also marks the start of the British asparagus season (Asparagus season ends on the summer solstice, 20th June). It seems a month for the saints.

April’s full moon this month falls on the 24th and is called the budding moon, new shoots moon or seed moon. Other cultures (native Americans) call it the pink moon, which has to do with various pink flowers and blossoms appearing in this month 🩷🌸)

Lots happening in the garden too. The kitchen garden is pretty much done in its prep and as empty as the greenhouse was, she’s slowly filling up again. I took the dahlia my father in law over winter for me back here and he’s even potted them all up for me 🥹🥰♥️ I was very happy for him to have some of mine to share as ‘payment’ for his great care. Can’t wait to see them all on bloom this year 😍

Have a wonderful April, may your seedlings grow big & strong. I’m off to (finally) repot mine 🌱

Last month saw me remove my massive lavender hedge. All together there were 6 or 7 plants left from the original 12 planted 8 years ago. I’m weirdly still upset about the loss of it as it gave me so much joy walking past it almost daily whenever I went into the garden. I know rationally that it was long overdue for them to go but I still found it very hard. They were the first plants I planted that actually survived my then ‘black thumb’. They’ve provided food for all sorts of bees and bumblebees, hover flies, butterflies and various other pollinators. I’ve made several cakes out of them, used dried flowers in my wedding confetti, made a lavender infused gin last year and the added bon us of neighbourly compliment en the aromatherapy when brushing past it.

With all this in mind it was obvious that what I removed would get replaced. When I mentioned this to my friend Leigh-Ann when we went to Avon Mill garden centre for a birthday treat, she not only got me cake, she also got me 3 new lavender plant! How wonderfully amazing is that! I got 3 myself and together we bought all their Lavender Hidcote (bar 1) on the same day.

I decided that I really wanted to do this whole thing right and made sure the whole area was weed free, and even went as far as sieving the gravel so that the soil could go under it again. I have my husband to thank for that as he didn’t just help me sieve, he did the most of it. It would’ve taken me at least twice as long had I done it myself – so a big thank you my love, you’re the best!

After that it was finally time to plant the lavender and the week before I went back for 3 more lavender, Provence this time as they were out of Hidcote (I wonder why 🙄). We then got to spacing them out equally which came to 29cm at either end and 58cm between each plant. I decided on 1-2-1-2-1-2 pattern since I can’t see te majority of the row from my house and this was I could see both roughly in equal measure.

I’m so happy I’ve got lavender there again and can’t wait to properly care for it (didn’t know before which is what got me in that mess in the first place) and make all the things like before.