Charlotte's Plot

Although nothing much is happening in the garden, the plants in the house are blooming. Our bathroom is filled with the heady, heavenly perfume of Hyacinth L’innocence.

The scent of Hyacinth is difficult to pin down: the green, sappy aroma of cut grass one minute, slightly earthy the next, and in the background, a constant sweetness. As always I am kicking myself for not having ordered more – though I was clever enough to stagger their planting, so there is another batch still waiting in the wings.

In the study I have been distracted by the flamboyant performance of this unnamed Hippeastrum. It made me think of a fan dance, as one by one the flowers unfurled. It has been quite extraordinary to watch and I don’t know why I haven’t bothered with them before. This one was saved from the basement of our local Ikea, which is why I have no idea about its true identity, though I must add that the label said Amaryllis, as do all the ones in the supermarkets, and I guess it’s a bit like the whole geranium/pelargonium thing. Next year there will be more. I want a forest of them on the mantelpiece.

On the kitchen window sill I have more Hyacinths, and several pots of Narcissus Tete a Tete all about to work their magic. I can almost be persuaded that there is no need to go outside at all. Except that we live in a house with an amazing view across the city, so I am always drawn to the windows, which makes the mud-fest, that at other times of the year passes for a garden, difficult to ignore. Below is the photograph of the garden as it is now.

And I have to say, it makes my heart sink. The pots, though filled with bulbs, look awful. The  stone terrace is bleak and the paths a total mess. The thing that strikes me most forcefully about the garden at the moment is the way that the bare boundary fences and trellis are forced to take centre stage. Part of this is simply that new trellis went up in the autumn and plants have yet to colonise it. But it’s also because  there is nothing else out there to draw the eye – most of last year’s planting consisted of herbaceous perennials which have died back for the winter. I can see a few of my new, self-seeded Euphorbias bulking up nicely, so I know that by this time next year it will look very different. I also have plans for more evergreen and semi-evergreen climbers such as aSolanum jasminoides ‘Album’ and Akebia quinata, both of which I grew in my garden in Peckham, and proved invaluable.

The other problem is that the design of the garden, as far as it goes, is really not much more than a path through wide’ish beds leading to the bottom of the garden. And at the moment, the bottom of the garden is not a place I particularly want to visit. I didn’t bother planting any shrubs there as I know that more landscaping is required – it seemed pointless to spend money on shrubs which might need moving so soon after planting. But in the autumn I stuffed the beds with spring bulbs, so although they appear empty now, things should start to improve in a month or two. I am aware that my tone might seem a little gloomy, but really I’m fine about it – gardens are never finished, they remain works in progress, they have their peaks and troughs. My garden is simply in a trough, and better to have the trough now – outside it is currently sleeting – than in July.