Spring

This time of year, plants begin to have a growth spurt. We had some good rain two weeks ago but nothing since. As a consequence, the grass is going brown but some of the vines are growing madly regardless of the water shortage. If possible this year, I am going to water using a watering can only. We do have underground water but continuous pumping by our neighbours is affecting the water table and I am reluctant to have a bore dug. I am about to plant parsley, the oregano is thriving and Ihave a little crop of mignotte lettuces growing in a long planter. Last weekend I indulged and bought myself a flowering lavender plant and an apricot rose. More tiresome is the wisteria shown creeping over our neighbour's fence. Lovely though it can be, it manages to send its tendrils into our cavity brick wall...like a triffid. If our neighbours had not built their conservatory

right on the fence line, we would have more chance of controlling the vines. Another pest is the tradescantia fluminensis which overruns all the garden beds if give half a chance. There is some hiding in the oregano bed above.

Comments

[Pica]

Jenny: it has been really important to me to plan this herb garden as drought-tolerant and mostly with natives plants. (Oregano and rosemary aren't native but they do will on little water, both of them as ground covers here; I'm going to put a low-growing thyme in between the flagstones.)

It's a challenge to plan all this AND pay attention to color AND try and attract beneficial insects and hummingbirds, but I think I'm ready to go this morning to the Arboretum Plant Sale, armed with a flat cart and, well, no longer "pretending" to be a gardener. I'm astonished this is really me, but as I pinch myself I find it is.

(You have tradescantia; we have white violets which spread like weeds and are particularly hard to get rid of; they suck up a lot of water so I'm trying to get them out.)