P1050115P1050110P1050111Spring is here.  True to form I have not quite finished with my winter pruning, and now I need to get on with early Spring pruning.P1050119An overgrown Santolina recently caught my eye.  One  full metre cube bag  later, it is  ready to grow away again. I can also now see a vast amount of  Alliums that would have been lost to the eye.   I finished my winter pruning in this garden on Tuesday, where several  over grown shrub roses  had  a meeting with my loppers and secateurs.P1050117One garden in particular  is  packed with thousands  of bulbs.  Everywhere  you look there is a  collection of  perfectly formed  Spring loveliness.  This  bulb  caught my attention.  I googled – a  white bulb a little like a tiffany lampshade, and up popped the name.  The Spring Snowflake Leucojum vernum.  It is  beautifulP1050113Several gardens in my care have been tended  for decades by others. The owners have bestowed time, love and horticultural knowledge, and it  is now my responsibility to care for them.  They impart  an immense sense  of peacefulness and serenity that only  time allows.

I am planning an entire weekend in my own garden, all my seeds have arrived,  I have until now resisted the urge to sow.  My sister Louise is already pricking out seedlings, she tells me that her use of heated wheat pillows underneath the seed trays has worked triumphantly.  As a member of the Wicks family, we are never short of practical ideas.  I personally have been known to say ” it was an idea, it seemed quite  good at the time, however on reflection, possibly it was not my best one…”

This year, one idea I really would  really like to put into practice is to create more  double borders.   I find you become far  more engaged with the planting  as you wander down the pathway. This  is my favorite double Spring  border.  Over the last six years I have filled it with primroses, crocus and hellebores.november 2013 076One idea I had years ago was to make a border that you could physically climb into. Pushing past the Crocosmia and Helianthus, there was a space for a low slung chair.  On this occasion it was  quite a good idea.P1020036Enjoy your ideas.