Spring meadow

Narcissi slit planted between the groups.

There is so much to do in the garden at the moment but so little time. Here I've been working in what I'll call the Spring meadow. It mainly lawn with mature trees but this time of year there are large areas of narcissi. Lovely, but it feels a bit like municipal planting at the moment with large groups plonked here there. As removing them would probably be an exercise in futility and they are much loved by the early bees I am doing my best to extend the groups. Digging into the middle of a blind bunch I can harvest lots of plants that can be slit-planted throughout the rest of the lawn. I can get away with this as the bulbs are small.

Tulip in the middle of narcissi

Inspired by some tulips that I saw last year at New Sherborne Castle I planted a pot of tulip bulbs intending to plant them out when the narcissi flowered. They look a little odd at the moment, slightly floppy from having been moved, but I can't wait to see them come up next year. I'm hoping that their flowering time will overlap a little.

And to add to the diversity I have also been splitting up primroses and a bunch of cowslips for this area. I've even planted some daisies that I weeded from the veg patch! Amazingly we have almost no daisies in our lawns so I am keen to encourage these. There are a few other spring flowering weeds that I have my eye on for moving too. It has occurred to me that, due to the narcissi, I don't usually mow this area until almost June so I can get away with chucking all sorts into the lawn here.