So for a few days at the beginning of March I thought that a couple of lovely sunny spring days heralded the end of the long long winter. Not so, living on the east coast we have had another couple of weeks of grey weather and a biting wind. My daffodils, which had finally plucked up the courage to start growing have slowed to a snails pace again and show no sign of opening their yellow flowers and so, in my garden, it has been left to the crocuses to add the only dash of colour to an otherwise brown landscape. Chatting last week to a friend who lives high up on a Perthshire hill, she was telling me that this year her daffodils are only just poking themselves through the soil – and she can’t see them flowering until May. Her garden, being high up, is always about a month behind mine but this late spring means that everyone’s garden is late. Although, on the upside, my snowdrops do seem to have lasted for ages this year.
Or perhaps that is as it should be – we have been used to spring getting earlier and earlier and the seasons seamlessly merging into one another. Listening to Alan Titchmarsh on the radio this week he was explaining that it was no bad thing to have such a late spring and that, for our native plants and animals, it is more in the natural order of things to have sharper divides between the seasons.
Here at Scottish Field our fabulous photographer Roy Summers has got quite used to going out at this time of year and photographing gardens to hold on file for features this time next year. This year though we have been struggling, as most of the gardens are still a sea of brown with just the odd green shoot, and not a blossom in sight – not exactly making the glorious photographic spreads I have in mind! Hopefully we’ll get some warmer sunshine in April and Roy can get busy with his camera soon.
If your garden looks beautiful in the spring and you would like to see it featured in the magazine next year, then email me on heddy@scottishfield.co.uk
It doesn’t matter if its big or small, in the country or city – if you your garden’s lovely at this time of year then it would be great to hear from you.
Till next time
Henrietta Forrest
Creative Editor
Author
TAGS
FOLLOW US
