Garden update

A few days ago I discovered a beautiful butterfly on the dog’s bedding, my husband caught it and released it in the garden. Luckily for the butterfly, the dog was upstairs or he would have probably eaten it. There are some pictures with the butterfly at the end of this post. All the excitement of getting the butterfly out without harming him made me think I should blog more about my garden as it’s something which brings me much joy.

I’ll start with the herbs. This is the rosemary I planted last year. It survived great during the winter, not that surprisingly considering the mild weather we have here. Now it has flowers and I think it looks lovely. I didn’t get the chance to read about rosemary, so I’m discovering as it goes along. In the same planter I have some garlic chives from last year. It doesn’t look as good as the rosemary, but I think I might harvest some for a pasta dish in a few weeks.
The mint from last year looked like it died, but now it’s very green and quite lush. It’s perfect to nip a few leaves for a tea or to flavour a glass of water.

This is a new basil, from the supermarket. I wanted a plant from which I can harvest quickly, so I got a shop bought one and replanted it in the garden. So far it’s doing ok. The same happened with the cress and thyme.

This is another plant I bought from the supermarket and planted it in the garden. It’s a shame not to have it at home and cut from it when we want fresh salad. Last year it lasted for weeks, I had no idea it will grow so fast.

My herb garden will, hopefully, grow bigger (I just had to make this pun) as I sowed seeds of rocket, cress and salad spinach, the one with red stems. It’s still early days, but it should grow ok.

The raspberry bush is growing beautifully. I got it two years ago and every year has new branches. Last year I harvested a few fruits, even though I wasn’t thinking it will have fruits so soon. I’m very happy with it.

The Clematis are doing great too, they have a few leaves.

I have an easy going approach to my garden. Basically: let nature take its course. It can also be described as… can’t be bothered to use fertilizers, just water the plants from time to time.

These lovely looking flowers were in the reduce to clear section at a local garden centre, so I thought it would be a shame not to get them. I have no idea how they are called, maybe I took a picture of the package and now I have to do some detective work to find it. Anyway, they look great, almost all of them are in bloom right now.

These are lilies. I’m so found of lilies as my bridal bouquet was with white and pink lilies. I received from friends a pot with lilies 3 years ago and they still bloom every year, I love it. I bough some more lilies last year and I’m delighted with them. I can’t wait to take one from the garden and put it in my new vase.

The snowdrops and the hyacinths faded away, but now it’s the tulip season and I have two of them. I’m not sure why the others aren’t in bloom. I want to make some adjustments to the back of the garden and maybe plant more bulbs in autumn for next year.

This is what happens in my garden at the moment. Lots of exciting things to follow, a few craft/DIY projects are necessary, but I’m not sure when we’ll find the time. The pigeons are back and I have to feed them daily. The neighbour’s tree doesn’t have leaves, so they don’t live here, but they are coming twice every day to get their meals.

This is the butterfly I mentioned at the begging of the post. I posted on Instagram pictures of the capture and release into the wild.

Do you have any plans for your garden this spring?