Tending to the front garden

I feel front gardens are often overlooked. People seem to pave over them and prefer to park their cars. However, the front garden is, in a way. the first impression people get of your house. I had personally never thought about this as I grew up in a block of flats (typical in Spain) and as a child I had never paid attention to my nan's front garden as, perhaps following the tradition of the 50's and before then, we went straight to the back door.

However, over time I have noticed that my nan took grate pride in having her box hedge pruned properly, and she liked having some roses there too. When it is warmer, and in the next pay day or two, I want to invest in a couple of large plant pots to have outside the door, for example. In the meantime, I have added some friends for the dianthus to grow with. I bought the "Snake's Head" Fritillaria at my local garden centre, and my partner's parents bought me some fragrant viola's as a gift when they visited last weekend.

I think I have kept the Fritillaria in the greenhouse for a tad too long as when I looked at them yesterday they looked a bit thirsty and in fact a couple of flowers had shrivelled up. I watered them and asked them not to die. I left them out overnight, and seeing them this morning gave me an idea. I had left a pot on a step, and it looked rather pretty. Thinking of placing my geraniums on the steps when I can have them outside in May.

I love anemones. They are looking healthy and I love purple.

Tulips are growing nicely. No buds yet, but I am excited to see what colours come out!

My planter is also growing nicely. I have found a new plant that I like. Hyacinths are lovely.

Finally, I have noticed some life with the potatoes! A tiny weeny green thing has given me hope as I was starting to think nothing would grow.

I have been weeding a lot today. This week that I have off I need to really tackle the unruly growth that's happening at the moment.

Weekend jobs - Saturday 28.03.2015

This weekend has been a productive one. I have been pottering around in the garden and then in the greenhouse when it started to rain. Here are some of the things I have done.

Yesterday I weeded this bed. I am slowly making my way round the garden doing some weeding every weekend. To be honest I wouldn't be that bothered if it were my own garden, but our landlord is adamant that we keep them at bay. Similarly, parts of the garden are quite bare and make the weeds more obvious, so hopefully once we get more stuff growing we can relax a bit with those dreaded weeds.

A couple of weeks ago I bought a couple of heather plants. I am worried that the one I bought in Autumn is either dying, or I have pruned it at the wrong time, so I thought I would get another two to keep it company as it is looking rather sorry for itself.

I had bought a couple of tulip pots at the garden centre last weekend. I still have a lot of learning to do in regards to what to plant with what and when, so it'll be through trial and error that I get this art down. In the meantime though, I decided to pot 2 anemones with one tulip pot, and plant the other bunch on tulips in a random spot.

I also planted some dianthus Doris in the front. I would like the front "garden" to look nice too, but there's so much concrete everywhere that I would have to invest in a lot of big pots, for example. My in-laws brought some violas as a gift today so I might plant those out around the dianthus.

Once it started raining I worked in the greenhouse a little. I repotted these geraniums. I was hoping to be able to have them outside soon,but the seed packet says they should be kept inside and then gradually harden them off late spring until they flower in June. I'm considering not growing them from seed next time; I think it was Alice over at The Edible Garden who considered only having perennial flowers and not annuals. I have not made up my mind yet but we will see.