It’s another chilly morning, the sort that we get this April in Somerset. At 6.30am the little daisies on the lawn are curled up tight, but in a few hours they’ll open up as the sun starts to warm things up around here.

Yesterday there was ice on the birdbath, I’m guessing there is again this morning, but I’ve no plans to venture out until it warms up a a bit more here.

These are my six things on Saturday

Thing one: The vase of flowers I cut yesterday. Here is ranunculus, hyacinth and various blossoms. That small speck on my left knee is a couple of amorous insects. Given the chilly weather, many of the blossom buds are still tightly closed. They have been ready for a couple of weeks at least, but waiting for warmer weather before blooming. I hope the mock orange blossom will open today, it seems like it might be sunny.

Thing 2 from the garden is the “Front garden fancification project” – which is coming along well. Our neighbours’ stunning magnolia tree overlooks our newly spruced up front garden. The new cottage garden planting is starting to look fantastic, and I’m hoping for plenty more colour here this summer. After Simon from Frome gardening & DIY did the hard work of installing proper chunky sleepers to contain the sloping ground, we planted lupins, roses, ranunculus, saxifrage and a few small shrubs.

Thing three has to be the snakes head fritillary. I don’t care if I also featured this a couple of weeks ago, I’m sharing again, because this is just a delightful little plant. I planted these pots with bulbs I bought at Frome market, and they’ve done exceptionally well. These bulbs came from ‘Triffids Nursery’ in the nearby town of Radstock, Somerset. They’re a member of the Somerset hardy plant society, https://somersethps.com/nurseries/triffids-nursery/. and I would highly recommend.

Thing four is my ‘haul’ from the garden centre. This time last year, the garden centres were closed for lockdown, and I saved my pennies. That’s not the case this year. I’ve picked up a few dozen new plants over the past couple of weeks from my favourite local garden centres and nurseries including a few hardy geraniums from the Walled Garden at Mells, and these Chinodoxa from the lovely Fonthill Lakeside garden centre in Crockerton

I’d like thing five to be the sound of the birds, but that’s hard to put across in a blog. Instead, head to the RSPB birdsong identifier, and listen to robins, wrens bluetits, longtailed tits and song thrush all together at once to get a rough approximation. https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/bird-songs/

It’s been good to have a bit of time and money to spend in the garden, and to get on top of a few things I’d really let slip last year (like the brambles).

The wildflower lawn is establishing nicely, and the new plants are adding a fantastic pop of instant colour. We’ve got plans for a pond coming together, and perhaps most excitingly, my new greenhouse will arrive in a few weeks. There’s not much to see here yet, but this little concrete 6×6 foot base will be a special place quite soon. How exciting!

I don’t think I can bear to end this blog post with such an ugly picture, so here’s a close up of those garden flowers in a vase.

For more garden shenanagins, visit the propagator for ‘Six on Saturday’

I hope your plans and plants are coming along nicely,

Jen x