Take a flutter on an acer

It's late April and the feathery acer leaves are starting to unfurl from their delicate husks. Acers, or Japanese maples come in all shapes and sizes and are a great addition to the garden. There are three in my garden.

The oldest is a small (50cm high), almost bonsai shaped one with horizontal branches and feathery green leaves. I keep it in a half barrel pot on the deck. The picture below shows its leaves just coming out last week. There are 100's of cultivars of Maples and I've no idea what this one is. But it looks great.

Next to the lawn, I've got an acer "orange dream" a delicate but vibrant acer thats already sporting a vivid red and orange leaves. Its about 1m high at the moment with multiple slender stems supporting a cloud like array of leaves that change colour through the summer. I got it from a specialist acer nursery 3 years ago and it's a real stunner but unfortunately prone to wind scorch.

The biggest acer is taller than me at about 2.5 high and wide with classic maple leaves. Acer leaves are easily recognisable although they vary in size from from 4-12 cm each with 5,7 or 9 lobes.

The photo below is the same tree late last summer on a sunny day where the whole tree glowed like amber. They all tend to be quite slow growing and can be a bit fussy but take advice and there will always be some to suit your garden.

Tulips: a painters palette of colour

Tulips are a fantastic addition to any garden. With over 150 different varieties they offer one of the most vivid and varied ranges of flower colours. Their versatility also means they work just as well in pots or garden beds so are perfect for adding a splash of colour to any size of garden.

Quick guide to the main tulip types

1. In rockeries and small pots try dwarf tulips that flower in March/April such as Greigii 15-20cm tall red tulips or Kaufmanniana 20-25cm tulips in a range of colours including orange & pink/lilac








2. For a vivid splash of colour from March to May try traditional cup shaped tulips. They vary dramatically in height from from 25-30cm short stemmed varieties such as diana (white) or purple prince to tall 50-60cm varieties such as queen of the night (black) and Apeldoorn (red)
   so make sure you plant them in the right position in the bed.



3. For elegant style, my favourite tulips are more unusual varieties with beautiful shapes such as lily & peony flowering, virdiflora and parrot.
   
   

Lily flowering tulips are the epitome of elegance, 50-60cm high and flowering in April/May. I love Ballerina (orange) shown in this photo.

Virdiflora tulips have an understated green stripe up the centre of each petal. 40-50cm high. The pink, red, yellow and cream flowers bloom in April/May.

The more blousy and ball shaped peony flowered tulips offer a range of colours from 45-60cm high. Try the delicate pink of Angelique.

For great texture try the frilly edged ruffles of parrot tulips. They come in some fabulous rich colours and flower in May (55cm tall)

Colour selection

When picking your tulips, either complementary or contrasting colours work equally well. It just depends on the look you are going for. For example:

Try Red tulips with bronze oranges or contrast with pinky purple or white

Try Orange tulips with creamy yellows or contrast with lime green

Try Yellow tulips with whites or contrast with blue

Try Black tulips with rich reds or purples or contrast with silver or hot pink

Planting for impact

There are no rules for planting tulips but here are four basic ideas to make sure your tulips look great.

1. Blended in small natural drifts under trees or beside grasses and shrubs provides a lovely understated surprise.

2. Plant two contrasting colours of tulips in a long narrow bed or strip.

3. Plant one type of tulip in a shaped bed or block alongside another flower of a contrasting colour. Underplanting works well on tall tulips. Try muscari, wallflower or euphorbia.

4. Create impact in large pots by filling them with either just one colour of tulip or use tulips to add height to the centre or back of a display that combines other complimentary plants.

In my garden

All of these photographs were taken in my garden, but here's a description of the different ways I've been using tulips to create colour and interest.

• Orange lily tulips combined with creamy cheerfulness narcissi and lilac primula in a old copper tank.







• Pink peony tulips combined with anemones, lilac primula and alliums in tall silver metal containers





• Mixed colours of Virdiflora tulips planted in small drifts under the lime poplar alongside vinca and in front of a ligularia that’s just starting to grow.







• Orange leaved acer under planted with red tulips
  





• Blue ceramic pot with bright pink tulips





• Queen of the night (Purple black) tulips in a silver bed

Tulips bring vital colour to the April garden so make sure you get your bulbs in this Autumn for a fabulous splash of colour next spring.

Peashoots and rhurbarb flowers

18/19 April: The veg patch is sprouting already! You have to look closely but the peas, radish, beetroot, carrots and fennel are all making an appearance.

We’ve added to the veg in the garden this weekend by planting some spring onions, kale, rocket, salad leaves, parsley, chilli, pepper and basil seeds. The latter three are indoors at the moment but the rest are in pots outdoors on the deck. So we’ll see how they all go. The kale is a bit experimental as its not normally grown in pots but it does no harm to try different things!

The fruits have also started their growth spurt. The blueberries and gooseberries have new leaves while the raspberries are shooting up new canes. Unfortunately some of them have come up over 1m away from where they should be so I’ve had to take them out. But no fear they are vigorous and shooting up all over the place. The indestructible strawberries have started to run again.

The rhubarb has had a good start but are already sporting flower heads. I’ve quickly photographed it before chopping it off so it can resume normal growth.

Cherry blossom and bird nests

18/19 April: It seems like the first flurry of Spring excitement has passed. There’s a much more sedate feel in the garden today. It’s a glorious weekend but the birds aren’t singing quite so loudly. Maybe they don’t need to, since courtship is over and they are busy building nests. The lawn is stripped of moss by their vigorous pecking and now its just the odd wood pigeon that’s rummaging around for small twigs.

We’ve got a family of tits that use a tiny corner under the eaves at the back of the house every year. And every April it sounds like they’ve got the builders in remodelling the pad for this year. Over the weekend I've been watching this years family flitting in and out lining their new extension with moss and twigs ready for their new brood.

Around the garden, two weeks has made such as huge difference. The daffodils and pasque flowers have been in full bloom and are now starting to gently fade at the corners.

The first virdiflora tulips have made a tentative appearance while the primula denticulata boldly strut their stuff across the garden with pink, lilac and white pom poms.

The primula offer a billiant and long lasting impact in the spring garden and multiply every year so you can spread them around.

Another great plant with a long season has made an appearance – the euphorbia. They come in all shapes and sizes and although they are poisonous they add interesting colour and detail.

The trees have transformed from bare branches with tight buds and catkins to being clothes with vivid new lime green ruffled leaves. However, this is the week of the gean (cherry) tree. It’s smothered in stunning clusters of white flowers and like confetti, the blossom has already blown over the lade and vegetable patch. The birds have been helping with this process. It looks like they are sitting in the tree gleefully throwing the flowers around but they are feasting on the tasty bugs in the flowers.

The magnificent white fingers of the magnolia stellata flowers are now waving in the wind, while the other magnolia still try to produce buds. I was in London last weekend and reminded of the season differences across the UK by the fantastic magnolia trees in full bloom already. It’ll be another few weeks before we see them in Scotland.

The acers have also started to show their colours. “Orange dream” looks fantastic with its red stem and citrus feathery leaves.

Flowers around the garden at the end of March

In between preparing and planting the veg patch this week, I've taken a look around the garden at the new flowers that have just opened as the clocks spring forward. Here are a few of my favourites.

The daffs are now opening - as you can see from the ice follies in the box by the driveway. (below)

The buds on the Mangnolia stellata are just starting to burst open.

Elsewhere the pulsatilla are blooming just in time for Easter, quite appropriate and well timed!

On the woodland bank, the wildflowers are making a beautiful new carpet:

Planting this years veg patch

This year’s vegetable patch in my garden is an easy no fuss option. I’ve decided to go for the "sow and go" approach, after last year's a wash-out. Although I nurtured 100’s of seedlings, potting them on diligently until they were ready to go out, the excessive rain and lack of sun meant that I got nothing more than a few potatoes and lots of mouldy plants.


So, this year, all I've done is prepared the vegetable patch and popped the seeds straight in. The photo shows the prepared seed bed drills ready for the seeds to go in.

In the seed bed
Radish - large german salad “Ostergruss Rosa”
Turnip - small “snowball”
Beetroot - Pablo F1 hybrid
Carrot - ingot
Broccoli - sprouting summer purple

The weather forecast for this week is unpredictable with cold snaps so I’ve put a fleece over the seed bed to give it a head start.

Round the edge
Potato - Maris piper

On 3 cane wigwams:
Sugar snap pea - delikett
Runner bean - polestar
Pea - Alderman
Complimented by sweet peas

In between the wigwam
Fennel

Next month I’ll set up a few pots with salad leaves, peppers and tomatoes. The pot of chives is already going strong, but the parsley and coriander will need re-sown.

Elsewhere in the garden, the fruits are springing back to life. The raspberry canes, strawberries and blueberry are all sprouting. The rhubarbs are sporting a few early stalks.

During the coming months I’ll report back on how everything is progressing. Lets hope the weather is better this year and we get a better harvest.