It’s definitely spring now that the covers are off the garden bench. It makes the whole garden look much better to have the bench on show, instead of its mildewed cover.

It’s been wonderful to have the sort of weather where clothes can dry on the line. My other half has been fastidious about keeping our newly laid wildflower meadow turf well watered, and it’s seemingly doing well so far.

Like many Brits, we’ve been down to the garden centre this bank holiday weekend, and returned with a car boot full of blooms, which we’ve started to plant out in a few of the recently improved spaces. Given the potential cold snap, we might have to pop out to protect some of the more delicate flowers, but I’m hopeful most of them will make it through any late spring frosts.

The side access is one of those newly improved spaces I mentioned, and here it is in the process of being improved. I hired a local landscaper to repair the retaining wall by the side of our house, as this is not a job I fancied tackling personally.

Once the space was dug out, and new posts concreted in, it was possible to reuse the timber to rebuild the retaining wall, which was my preference to save a bit of cash and keep the ‘look’ of the repaired section matching the rest of the garden. Digging in this area revealed a terracotta pot and a concrete ammonite, both of which are now on display in this section. I’ve planted up the pot with campanula, placing it on the stump of the old tree. I’ve put in a few foxgloves and a tiny primrose into this bed, and will add a bit more as time goes on. The climbing roses I planted in here back in December seem to be doing well so far. This area looks much better now, and now that the wall is repaired it’s possible to get the wheelbarrow through here, which makes gardening a lot easier.

This is the primrose, rosea rosy, which is a delicate little flower.

Out in the front garden, the landscaper has put in some sturdy, recycled railway sleepers to replace the collapsing log walls and tidy up this space. My husband’s been hard at working planting out new our new ‘cottage garden’ style borders, with lupins and ranunculus, saxifrage and dianthus.

Last year, I removed the central part of the brick circle and planted it up with an olive tree, dianthus and snapdragons. This year, my husband put that central spot back into the garden, and planted up with a huge pink ranunculus, and I think it looks absolutely fabulous.

I’ve been busy in the back garden, refreshing our patio pots with hyacinths and pansies. As lockdown ‘eases’ we’ve been sat out with friends in the garden, and even with great big holes in the paths and a lot of work in progress, it’s still lovely to be sitting at this table, as the early evening spring sunlight makes the flowers seem to glow.

I guess that’s my six things for Saturday, which I’ll share with the Propagator’s gang of garden bloggers. To see more of what’s growing on this week visit the Propagators blog, or search the hashtag #SixOnSaturday.

And as usual, I hope that your plants and plans are going well this week.

Jen x