Beating the Big C, the Mitcheldean Garden 2020
The Shortest Spring on Record

This page is part of a series of garden blogs from 2020. Click here for the index.

We 'escaped' from Penang in the nick of time, Malaysia was in near total lockdown but we were allowed out and since transit in Singapore was still possible and our flight still operational we arrived home to the minute as we had planned back in July 2019. Another two days and most likely we would have been stranded unless we bought a new ticket for a direct flight. Were we 'lucky' or as I would prefer 'well informed' as we made the close call not to try to advance our flights? The UK certainly looked grey and miserable on arrival but within a couple of days Tua Pek Kong waved his magic wand and we have since been treated to the warmest and sunniest three weeks I can ever recall at this time of year as the pictures will show. Let's start with a traditional Mitcheldean pre-sunrise display.

For good reasons I rarely comment in public on the 6 years I was based in Beijing but one of the early things I learned is that Spring there lasts about one week. I guess the flowering trees and shrubs can detect the change in day length long before the temperatures start to rise. It was an extraordinary sight to watch trees in particular burst into flower long before any leaves appeared, Most spectacular of all were the magnolias which is probably why we now have seven scattered around our garden. Most people round here make do with one but a fair number are a good size and provide a great annual spectacle, we will have to be careful not to let ours grown out of control.

By all accounts it had been a mild and wet winter. So our hyacinths and daffodils were well into their season and only now in mid-April are they fading.

This Magnolia Soulangea arrived as a foot long 'twig' a few years back and since it can allegedly reach a height of 8 metres, it will soon need some pruning. The number of flowers more than doubles each year at the moment. In the middle is a small Magnolia Stellata which is unlikely to grow as high as its cousin. Our third type, Magnolia Susan with purple flowers is biding its time this year. Finally, this delightful miniature daffodil came as a 'free gift' from our internet plant provider.

Necessarily, the early jobs were all about getting the place tidy. We inherited two 3 metre Leylandii hedges which give us lots of privacy but which are pigs to keep under control. I have a safety platform to access the tops, a job which I can't face doing more than once a year every Spring. The result looks very smart from a distance, unfortunately these 'trees' can't be reduced as they will stop growing and the top will be brown. We don't have lawns, we have meadow grass, it needed two cuts in quick succession to make it presentable although as always in our absence, the moles were back. The hyacinths provided the only colour in the top of the garden bar a few daffodils and primroses, other exceptions were the oversized pieris fire plant and the forsythia which will shortly get its annual 'back and sides' cut. 

The last two years have seen me battle to trim our wisteria all summer long, otherwise it would have reached the ridge of the bungalow roof and covered the greenhouse. It was only a matter of time before I had an accident so it's had a massive experimental prune. I think this could become an annual affair. When we returned, the pond looked like a giant bowl of pea soup, the pump had failed and I spent a long time skimming the surface, I was far too embarrassed to take a picture. It's still not perfect being rather cloudy but I hope that now I've cleaned most of the filter mud from the header tank things will return to normal. I lose track of our fish population but we seem to have 16 left.

The young lad opposite had politely asked to leave his car on our space during our absence as he knew BB would be in the garage. There was no reason to refuse him and in return he kept the geraniums in the greenhouse from drying out as the days got longer. I have never known them look better. With the warm weather, the dahlias have all been started earlier than usual and we have our fingers crossed that a late frost doesn't undo the good work. One of the standard dahlias was so ready to go that shoots have appeared just a couple of days after being transferred into the greenhouse, the African marigolds in the seed trays germinated similarly.

At the bottom, the red tulips have been splendid again and this year I have given the fuchsias a heavy pruning to make them more visible.

By now there are other flowers out. On the left are some baby anemones and on the right some 'Christmas roses' (Hellebore). The latter like a damp shaded position and now the sycamore trees no longer shade their former position I have moved them next to our hawthorn hedge which had previously been a home for moss.

Several years ago I was ordered to 'reduce' this flowering bush but unfortunately in our ignorance it was done at the wrong time. Now finally it has recovered and complements the tulips in the bed behind the new wall. I don't record the 'first bluebell' dates but 9th April must have been a record. Within a week there will have been many more..

Our primroses have turned invasive this year, several of the beds and the rockery are full of them, in this case they look extra good with grape hyacinths mixed in. They will have to be 'tamed' when the small azaleas decide it is time to flower. Our 'guest cat' presented himself on the steps at the back barely 24 hours after we returned and is back in residence in the garden and the field behind, you would think we had never been away. The point of the final picture is that this bed which has been a disaster for 9 years should start to resemble the rest of the garden this year. There are summer bulbs and hydrangeas at the top and original lilies at the bottom. In between, the bluebells will spread and thicken and as they fade then two dozen peonies will rise, but of course it will be several years before they are a decent size. Garfield is trampling established bluebells in the adjacent grass.

The world outside has turned upside down and this summer we do not expect to do much, if any, travelling. Garden centres and nurseries are closed putting great pressure on the online sellers who have been snowed under with orders. We are very concerned about our favourite family run nursery in Bromsash, but they have many loyal customers and are trying to put together an informal system which at best could only begin to shift all the plants coming on stream.

Finally and 'hot from the press' is confirmation that summer is here. This is the first Blue Moon bloom of the new season with afternoon tea and cakes on the patio:

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