The woodland garden

The woodland garden has really filled out this year, and the weeding has actually become easier as the brambles are beginning to surrender their battle for survival.  A huge pile of hellebore white lady spotted was salvaged from the original garden when we bought the house and split and replanted in the woodland garden.  It has been joined by a native stinking hellebore from Sally-Ann down the road, a black hellebore from Hadlow College and a small double pink hellebore from Christine next door.  We also have a mass of leucojum vernum (snowflake) and loads of dafodils, both also salvaged from the original garden.  The bank has started to break out in primroses, totally by accident of nature, and I have introduced natives, pulmonaria, lily of the valley and red campion as well as non native snowdrops, tricyrtis and lamium.  The foreground is carpeted in foxgloves, all of which have seeded themselves just because they like it here.  And I have just sown a tray full of sweet woodruff and put them in the fridge to break their dormancy (much to Mab's disgust) and look forward to introducing them to this happy place.  This is my favourite part of the garden today. 

New border

A little more digging, and working in manure today, and then the highlight of all - planting!  Today I planted five geraniums, three dwarf sarcococca hookeriana humilis, hamamelis jelena, hamamelis mollis, vibernum bodnantense "dawn", hollyhocks of unknown colour (self seeded in the lawn lower down), blue lupin, lemon balm (also salvaged from the lawn), dicentra spectabilis alba, eryngium gigantium "silver ghost", a tree peony from Christine, and leycesteria formosa salvaged from the garden before building works began.  It's been a busy day.  As usual, Maisie helped with the weeding!

And most glorious of all, the only thing flowering, heleborus niger or the "Christmas Rose".

Betula Jaquemontii

After two days of digging and clearing away stinging nettles and bindweed, we finally have a section of flowerbed to house my new plants.  The first to get settled into their new home were the Himalayan Birches, Betula Jacquemontii.  These will look splendid with beautiful white bark, when they have growed up a bit!

Happy Easter to me, Happy Easter to me...

My Parkers order has arrived, and I potted them up by torchlight with great anticipation.  This means I need to get digging my new beds so that they have somewhere to live.