April in the garden

I didn't spend much time in the garden in April. Between a work conference, my cycling trip and our week in Northumbria, I was away for almost three weeks of April, and the rest I seemed to spend packing and unpacking and repacking, and preparing to go away and getting used to being home again. 

I did sneak out to take a few photographs in the sunshine right at the end of April though. Things have taken a rather tulipy turn out there. When my mum visited in the autumn, we spent a rather chilly couple of hours haphazardly planting bulbs, and our lack of planning and coordination is very evident. 

Tulips have popped up all over the place - pink, bright red and frilly, and these rather fetching dark purple raggedy-edged things. 

I often think I should take a more coordinated approach to garden planning, and have some kind of vague colour scheme that I stick to, but this is such a small garden that you can't commit to too much of one thing in case it doesn't work, so every year I end up with a slightly different higgledy piggledy look. It suits me. The neighbours may well laugh, I don't care. 

We harvested a small bit of rhubarb in April too - just enough to top up a crumble with the rest being from a friend's allotment. The gooseberry, redcurrant and blackcurrant bushes are looking like they're in for a good summer, and the first flower has appeared on the fuchsia. I've finally pulled up the ornamental cabbages, which went to seed several weeks ago, but the bedding plants (violas?) I planted last August are still going strong, although they're starting to get a bit leggy now. A trip to the garden centre might be in order soon.