Mud and Mulch...The tempo just explodes in March

...More Mucky March Garden News....

Hazel Catkins in my garden

 The garden tempo just explodes in March.  Sure there is still rain, wind and cold but there is enough sunshine and promise of spring to accelerate growth.   The birds are in spring-throat....you can tell their songs have taken on a more joyous note.

This week Seren and I planted the Morello Cherry tree.   Seren is a very enthusiastic digger.   She is also partial to a bit of the Fish Blood and Bone organic fertilizer I put in the hole to encourage root growth.   At one stage I thought I might lose Seren altogether because all I could see of her from the tree hole she helped dig was her white tip on her tail....and an awful lot of flying soil.

The Morello Cherry Tree...just give it a year or two...

The lumps of broken paving stone round the bottom are to stop Seren uprooting all our hard work.

Young Seren is also very adept at nipping off flower heads....something she has been told is strictly a BIG NO.   Mind you, if I could train her to dead-head later in the summer it would be OK.  So far she has decimated several daffodils and some blue anemones.

Surviving because they are fenced off from puppy teeth.

Yesterday I took the opportunity of the balmy day to radically prune one of my grape vines and make an attempt at espaliering it along the fence.  I reduced it to just just 4 spurs trained out along wire.  If all the gardening gurus are right (why wouldn't they be?) then this should encourage growth and fruit this year.  the second vine is just by the kitchen door.   You would think this is an ideal spot...well, I thought so when I planted it there but the wind throws itself around that corner like a dervish so I have had to protect the vine with a willow cage.   Hopefully that will give it a chance to grow stronger this year and then I will be able to train it up over the pergola.

Here's the diagrammatic  theory behind espaliering.

Hmm...not sure mine will work ....

Anyway, while I was at it I tidied up the yellow jasmine and the honeysuckle on that same fence.

Things take me twice as long to complete half as much these days ...thanks to an enthusiastic puppy helper.  JP used to continually drop a ball where I was working in the garden, hoping for me to throw it.   I found it was quite peaceful in between 'throws' so I gardened and ball-tossed.   Seren hasn't settled down to the ball ...it keeps her interested for a couple of minutes - so then she digs, pulls up plants (not the weeds - sadly), runs off with the garden tools, empties the rubbish sack....We'll get there.

So the potatoes are not yet chitted...in fact everything just happens more slowly, but nevertheless the main bit will be achieved.  I want to sow seeds on the window sill and in the propagator this week...surely Seren can't interfere with that?

Meantime, in the wild there are lovely primroses blooming.

At Parc Slip

Maybe next week I will have dozens of photos of all the progress I have achieved in the garden...maybe!

Have a great gardening week.