IT'S BASICALLY DAFFODILS THIS WEEK

It's the end of March (or even April by the time you read this) and it's all about daffodils this week.  There are other plants flowering in the garden but it is the daffodils that are dominating.  Many of them are still standing upright, despite the endless rain this week. There was me fretting that February was so dry, and now I'm fretting that March is so wet.  I've gone from contentedly feeling in control to a flustered OMG how am I going to get all the jobs done, in the space of a couple of wet weeks.  

Despite what nature has chosen to delight us with, I have managed to get a little gardening done in between showers.  None of these jobs were in the least bit photo worthy, so instead all my photos this week are of daffodils.  If left to my own devices I would have only planted a couple of varieties which would reflect my own exquisite taste (see Narcissus poeticus 'Actea' below).  Instead I inherited most of the ones growing in the garden, and I have grown to appreciate, and even love, the many different varieties.  I have photographed a few to share this week.

Narcissus poeticus 'Actea'

This week I've got round to sowing a few more seeds.  I am very pleased to see that the marigold seed I saved from last year has germinated quickly.  I've always bought fresh seeds each year.  Why?  I don't know.  I've also sown some  Sporobolus heterolepsis (Prairie dropseed) and Liatris Spicata.   The later of these germinated beautifully for me in the Autumn but the seedlings sulked and died off over Winter, so this was a second sowing.

The Dahlias have been disinterred from the garage and potted up.  Most of them seemed in good condition despite this freezing Winter.  I will plant out the larger tubers, that are too big for pots, directly in the ground in a few weeks time so that their shoots appear towards the end of May. 

These jobs could have been done earlier but I had a 'little' job to finish in the greenhouse first.  I wanted to tile the internal windowsills with a bull nose quarry tile.  Such a simple little job, yet the tiles were bought four years ago I think, and still they hadn't been installed.  Never mind.  This year I was able to use that short gap when it was no longer freezing in there overnight to get in and do it.

I cut the tiles and laid them out before coming back the next day to cement them down.  I read of people 'boasting' about the biodiversity in their gardens (I see you Great Dixter) but my greenhouse is full I tell you, full of all sorts of bugs.  By the next day each tile had little creatures lurking under it, and some blinking huge spiders too.  

The potatoes have been planted out.  I went for 'Winston' this year.  Just the one variety this time.  The onion sets have gone into cells in a seed tray.  Sometimes I plant these straight into the garden, but I find they get off to a better start like this.  Popular wisdom says that birds like to pull them out of the ground mistaking them for worms.  I think birds are cleverer than that (not Pigeons obviously).  I tried putting a cloche over them and they were still ending up on the surface of the soil, so it must be worms that are the culprit.

I'm hoping it will be a drier week to come since I still have 7 bags of Strulch to spread and some turf to left for that Prairie bed I told you about last Autumn.

That's it for this week.  Don't forget all the Six on Saturday posts can be found on Garden Ruminations where Jim collates all our garden ramblings.