Tonight we head into the first full moon in April. Some Native North American peoples called this full moon the “Pink Moon’ – not because the moon appears pink, but because the moon at this time of year illuminates the first spring wild meadow flowers – Wild Ground Phlox. These brightly coloured wildflowers bloom at this time of year, and in the moonlight the meadows would look like fields of clouds of pink.
Bee on the White Borage. Photo by G. 7 April 2020.
Just look at this beautiful bumble bee, gorging gloriously on the white blooming borage. Awesome! Love borage! Love bees! Over-the-moon swoony for bees, borage, blossoms!
We went up nice and early. Packed a picnic so we could sustain ourselves for a leisurely session. The great Malink worked at a variety of jobs. I floated, weeded, puttered, got the potting area set up to finish potting up the little garden shop-bought zucchini, and also to start more seeds. Sorted storage of pots to identify a good candidate for digging out the gooseberry from the raspberries and install into the new raised gooseberry palace.
Last summer we planted a Jersey Blueberry – purchased near Ness Gardens up North – to mark our visit to the Mister’s relations on the Wirral.
We only bought one blueberry bush, but it’s self-fertile. It’s doing very well, and is in a large pot – all the better to keep the condition of the ericaceous soil, needed for good cropping blueberries.
On Sunday the stalks of the plant were starting to prick with growing buds, but otherwise the stalks and the plant was fairly bare and twiggy.
It rained a little in the middle of the night and then on Monday, lo and behold: tons of little flower clusters. 
Blueberry flowers are fairly unassuming – pale little flower bells that grow in small clusters.
And you know what flowers means!
Flowers is fruit.
Yum!
Good news! H is well – we saw him on the patch on Sunday. He was arriving as we were leaving. Earlier the big dude sent him a text just to say all ok and life abounding in the ponds. He confessed on arrival that our text had inspired him to come up and check things out. We kept our distance and left shortly after he’d arrived. But before we left we gave him a run-down on happenings and what-not.
Later on Sunday evening H texted the Malink to check on what the palmate newt was called: Percival.
H was delighted to report that he had spotted three newts in the pond as he had cleaned out some leaves. Three!
So Percival has some pals.
It rained lightly last night, with the roads still damp by late morning. After a morning tending to the small matter of replenishing our larder and provisions, we had a quick lunch at home and then went out to the plot. Heaven! By the time we arrived we’d missed the best of the day and the clouds were drawing in, but even a cloudy day is beautiful up there.
Malink fixed up the new raised bed. Yesterday he installed a divider into the bed, and then screwed in place four wooden broom poles, which support plastic pea netting. This is to discourage the birds, who ate each and every single gooseberry we had on our plants last summer!!
We’ve since been told by those who know, that netting all year long is necessary, as the birds eat the bud growth mid-winter, so you can’t simply add netting around fruiting time – which is done with dwarf cherry and plum trees, for example.
So into this ‘four poster’ plant bed I moved in the potted gooseberry. We have one other small gooseberry bush — planted in earth — that also needs to be transplanted into the new bed (it’s presently ensconced into the raspberry bed but needs moving). The final touch will be to devise garden netting as a front protection to completely enclose the gooseberry bed. A friend used to weave a wooden broom stick into the bottom of the netting to keep a firm end line and help secure it (which we will do with bricks.) It’s all going to be magnificent. Tremendous!
Went up late afternoon after a morning on computer – checking emails, being a virtual worker, trying to fix problems and what-not. Remote working is strangely stressful but mustn’t grumble – we got an email from the big chief who said there would be no job lay-offs during coronavirus. And the super-dude will be on 80% “furlough” deal with his bosses. So we’re ok for the time being. Phewf!
Today’s coronavirus death totals: up to near enough … UK = 1,789 Spain = 8,189; Italy = 12,428; USA = 3,415. Is it ghoulish to keep count? By why not? Everyone else is. And later the numbers might change….
Here’s a rift in the timeline: the photo to the left is of lungwort, in flower – early March. It’s a photo from the back patch/ woods, taken maybe two or three weeks ago. Dusty pink to pale blue flowers. The buzz of bees. White speckled foliage, lush and verdant among the mud and muck of late spring. And all of a sudden in a flash he got it: the value of these late-summer bedraggled green and white speckled soldiers comes clear: an early oasis of flower blossom for the bees.
Yahoo! The big guy built a new raised bed frame for a new salad / greens bed.
This used the solid wood planks we found in the rubbish on the street yesterday.
We still have to fill it with soil and manure. In the end this will be a semi-shaded plot as it sits at the base of the fig tree that’s on our front neighbour’s plot.
I’m thinking of planting with plants that often are quick to ‘bolt’ – like spinach. lettuce, pak choi and other greens – dill, coriander, etc.
The photos below show the greens patch (at the base of the rose arbor), and tonight’s harvest of pink and yellow stemmed swiss chard.
Life abounds – the pond is exploding with activity.
Tons of frog spawn and tiny little tadpoles already.
And the palmate newt survived another winter! I think his name might be Percival. We scooped him up by accident when we were taking some of the fallen leaves from the pond.
Some photos taken in the last few days. There are tulip and cyclamen in bloom. Sprinklings of celandine in flower at the base of the damask rose. And a big bunch of bluebell bursting forth in the path on the upper terrace area – promising wild blue blooms in the coming weeks.
The garlic bed is looking tidy. I inserted a new brick path and in-filled part of the old path to maximise growing space. The garlic bed is kept weed-free and we’re watering now and then to keep growth steady.
We plan on bumper crops of tasty crunchy peas this summer. Peas to eat fresh right off the plant – to snack on while we work. Peas, peas, peas!: delicious green-tasting, life-affirming, easy-to-grow peas!
The planter at the front side of the shed was built especially for an annual pea crop, in a raised wooden planter that can easily be topped up with rich garden compost and manure, to stop the soil becoming depleted.
We hung a nice piece of pea netting along the front of the shed to provide support. The netting is held on by hooks, so easy to remove when we want to. The netting is down close to the level of the soil, to make it easy for tender seedling tendrils to grab hold and get growing upwards.
Philosophising... 