THEY SAY

Luca's New Garden

with Bridget Sudworth

HAVE YOU GOT worms? I do sincerely hope so as they are so important for your soil especially at this time of the year. Several articles on gardens recently have talked about the importance of soil condition and after a winter of fairly relentless rain, a great number of nutrients have been washed away. Some degree of frost has helped improve things but feeding peat free organic compost to rebalance the goodness is always necessary. I am no scientist so can’t help with any percentages on soil chemicals but I do know whenever I dig around that the number of wrigglers in the soil is always a good sign as they tunnel along by helping to ventilate the soil, turning, mixing and draining it to encourage healthy growth in all plants.

Pear Tree in bloom.

The gardeners’ companion, the sweet singing robin (though his sweet sounding message is, of course, a dreadful warning to other robins to keep away from his territory!) is also on watch to see what he can glean. Incidentally, it is quite sad to reflect on the fact that robins rarely live longer than one year, enough to raise a family before succumbing to weariness or death from fighting. The fact that they seem so ubiquitous is of some comfort and may at least suggest that unlike other species, they are not in decline.

A word in defence of moles while on the subject of soil might not come amiss. Lawn lovers will find any way to get rid of them but they are always welcome here due to the neat, finely sorted soil they leave after burrowing which I scoop up and use for planting seedlings.

Spring is definitely upon us and greenhouses will be burgeoning with seed trays, chitting boxes and a low-key sense of anticipation and excitement about forthcoming growth. This is the time of year when you are truly a god controlling, planning and directing. Our greenhouse is not unlike a rather earthy operating theatre at the moment, tools laid out neatly (particularly those retired dental instruments given to me by my Best Friend), prepared boxes stacked waiting for use, vermiculite and bags of compost warmly waiting in the wings for action accompanied by watering cans filled to reach greenhouse temperature. Rest assured, this state of affairs doesn’t last for long!

Brightly coloured seed packets are so seductive and hard to resist - one might think there is always room for one more but as the season progresses, time and space

Clematis macropetala. will run out and there will be boxes of healthy little plants standing at the garden gate with notices ‘Free to good homes’ thrust into the pots. Unless, of course, who knows? Maybe this year a village hall will open with a plant stall? That would be good for the soul!

April is such a busy time of year. All the hard work and preparation during the winter should now start to show results. Climbing roses and eager clematis will need watching to be tied in during the ascent of trellis and the hydrangea heads can go at last if they haven’t already been clipped off. Watch out for birds’ nests appearing in hedgerows as leaves start to provide privacy and tell your cats to go away! Advice is to protect blossoms from late frosts but I have always failed on that point - climbing a tree with a yardage of fleece is not easy! Seeds planted outside are protected under netting tunnels here - too many little creatures like to eat them or nip off the buds. This also helps to keep off late frosts too. Grass seed to fill up patches or create new lawn can go in when the soil warms up for quick germination. This is the time when Luca starts to rethink the locations of his dens and some of last year's dens in the flower beds will be used to plant new shrubs! Thank

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