Suddenly everything is growing and the garden is a real picture.

We haven’t had a frost for a while and everything seems to be taking off – not just on our farm, but in all the fields around, plants are shooting up.  Our herb border at the entrance to the barn is lush and green.  The sage has recovered nicely after the harsh winter and the lupins are beginning to flower, plus the chives, agapanthus, clematis, cotoneaster and lots more.

Peter’s black water pump (brought over from the UK) looks great with the herbs around it.  The mint is taking over a bit, but it’s so lovely that I’ll leave it to roam so that it gives us some green cover in the gravel.  I use the mint daily: I pop a sprig into a bottle of tap water to make it taste nice and to save buying bottled water.  I like to think that this helps the planet a bit, with a little less plastic floating about the ocean, but the system in Denmark is so great that I’m sure that no plastic bottles get dumped from here: it’s like the old days in the UK, when you get cash back when you return the bottle.  It’s all automated here – just put your bottle in the machine to get your money.  Great for the kids to get some extra pocket money and we also use the cash for a special treat for ourselves from time to time!

We planted up a tub (one we got with the free monkey puzzle tree we were given a year ago) with lots of bright flowers.  This brightens up Peter’s other water pump – a red one that was here when we bought the farm in Demark and that Peter lovingly restored. The tulips that Peter brought back with him from Holland last autumn are in full show now; they really do add a flash of amazing colour to the front borders around the yard.

I’m hoping that Peter is going to have more business trips there, so he can bring back more of these lovely tulips, and a bunch of the other bulbs that they seem to produce so well in Holland.

The fruit and veg garden is beginning to come together.  We planted another blackberry bush and a pear tree last week. Peter also dug some more vegetable plots in one of our grassy areas and planted more potatoes in them, so it will be spuds with everything when they crop!

The perennial borders are filling up really well.  I made some very rustic plant supports for the sweet peas, using poles from a big willow coppice we have, plus some old vines from a huge hop plant that grows alongside my new potting shed. The seedlings are calendula – I’m so pleased that they germinated: I wasn’t sure they would grow as I threw them straight into the soil and just hoped for the best.

Peter cut the grass in our “posh” garden area using the push along mower. I think the grassy area is finally beginning to look like a lawn.  The next job is to mow the scrappy grass in the other areas with the ride on mower.  Unfortunately, it came back from the repairers and only worked for 5 minutes before seizing up.  This was a 4 day weekend, so everything was closed and there was nothing for it but to wait until Monday when the repairers are open……I hope it’s an easy fix, but Peter couldn’t get it going, so maybe it’s not!

I spent all day yesterday cleaning out the greenhouse and planting up some tomatoes, cucumbers and pumpkins. I still have a few tomatoes to plant and this year we got a lot of different kinds – yellow, cherry and some giants, so these will add variety to our summer salads.

I put a bench outside my studio so I can have a cup of tea there when I’m having a break from sewing. Peter mended the glass of my potting shed window so now there’s less draughts and we’re using one window for the potato chitting.  Just a few more rows of tatties to plant in the veg garden, then that should be the end all the hard digging of the grass for this year.

The lilac is blooming all round the garden.  We spent a weekend some time ago removing all the dead branches and thinning it out on the garden side.  The hedge is a real joy to look at and the scent floating on the breeze is lovely.