Our April Garden

Following the unusually cold winter our garden is a little late in blooming this year. There weren't many horticultural happenings here in March but April has been a much more generous month. However, though we have had quite a lot of sunshine it has generally been accompanied by a cold wind. Aside from a couple of warm days it has definitely still been sock weather!

As you will see, I like using my macro button to take photos of the plants in the garden. It's great for focussing on the beautiful flowers, buds and leaves and not on the general mess which usually lies behind. There are still far too many weedy and untidy bits of the garden for me to give a proper tour but I have included some views of the garden towards the end of this post. The trick in getting away with these seems to be to take the photo into the sun!

We start with a blossom from the copper leaved tree we have in the middle of the back garden. This tree used to always be very early to flower and would be covered in many blossoms. This year it's very late and there are very few flowers. Those that there are are still very pretty though.

Ladies Mantle. Considered a nuisance by some due to it's prolific self-seeding habit. For me it's a blessing as it's great at hiding weeds! The leaves look especially lovely after light rainfall.

Lupin, also lovely after rain.

Viburnum, not a very exciting shrub.

One of my three lilacs. This one is in the front garden and is always first to flower. I do like lilacs, I'm sure I could find space for another one, perhaps with yellow flowers as I don't have one of those, yet!

Bleeding Heart. Nice at this time of year though it looks a bit dead and messy by late summer.

I liked the contrast here of the bright leaves against the dark wall. The pink flowers are from a flowering currant...

...and look even more striking againt a clear blue sky.

Ta da! It's red! This is the first year my camellias have bloomed. I planted them 6 or 7 years ago.

A small cabbage white butterfly. I've also seen a peacock butterfly and a small tortoiseshell. I've never noticed them before at this time of year, however, I've also never been blogging at this time of year - I now see so much more of what there is around me.

Violas. I planted two large pots of these before the winter and they have been fantastic. Since taking this photo the tulips I also planted in the pot are now just about to flower.

Some colourful washing.

It's just so good to get washing dried oustide again.

A view of the garden. N (not yet 2) is already quite an adept climber, if you look closely you can see he's just made his way to the top of the ladder on the climbing frame.

Another garden view, this time looking down towards the back of the house from the seat in front of the brown shed. In the foreground are two of our four raised veggie beds. The other two are behind the shed. A was very keen that I take a photo of her about to go down the slide.

And finally, a view of the back garden from N's bedroom window.

Soon it will be May, my favourite month of the year as everything looks so fresh and green and full of promise.

Now, however, it's time for bed!