April is really the month that transforms the land here in the West of Ireland, probably more than any other month of the year. It usually starts of quite cold and barren but by the end of the month everything has exploded into a crescendo of colour and form.
We have been busy weeding and rearranging our raised beds slightly as when we did them originally, the paths we put in were too narrow, and by midsummer each year it was always difficult to navigate them for weeding and harvesting. We now have the beds 120 centimetres wide and the paths 60 centimetres wide. We use straw to suppress weeds on the paths.
Our onions and shallots are already growing nicely and soon it will be time to harvest the first ones for a quick stir-fry, a real spring treat with some soy-sauce and sesame seeds.
In the conservatory we have a lot of vegetable seedlings waiting for the frost free nights of late May, when they can be planted out into the newly prepared beds. The tomatoes we will keep in there for the whole summer as last year when we grew them in the garden, they all succumbed to blight.
Some of the slightly hardier vegetable seedlings have been moved out into the gazebo by the stream. There we are re-potting them into larger pots as they grow. We have found that putting small seedlings or seeds directly into our garden really does not work. The slugs eat all of such efforts before we had a chance to taste them.
The bridge across the small pond needed a coat of paint on the steps and we think it looks lovely in blue. The little pond is absolutely full of tadpoles and dragonfly nymphs.
In our larger pond we have a lot of newts as well and it is always a spring treat to see them swim around as the water warms up.
After painting the bridge, we also added some blue paint to the old cable drum, intended to be a table in our willow dome. We are hoping to a mosaic to the top of it in the near future. The dome itself had some attention, with many branches on the top and sides being woven in. We added two round windows as well.
The main garden circle can be seen here in the four directions of the compass. It is very green and many plants are still in bud, waiting to open up in the coming month.
East
South
West
North
We bought a new camera and have tested it out around the garden. Hope you like the result. We think it takes nice close ups of flowers and wildlife.
We are looking forward to May, there are many projects in the pipeline and we are planning to share them with you here. It is a most delightful time in our little corner of the world.
thegreenerdream 