How spring can bring thee glory, yet,
And summer win thee to forget
December's sullen time!
Emily Jane Bronte
Hello! It's good to be back after what we think was a well-earned rest. Geoff and I set about closing the Parsonage garden for the winter last October − cutting back, raking off the thousands of leaves that fall from the graveyard trees and planting bulbs and perennials for the following year. It is almost like that feeling after a busy day when you’ve settled the children into bed and you can put up your feet with a nice G&T.
But then, come February and a few spring-like days and you feel the call of the garden again. This year was so funny because Geoff and I turned up on the same day without having planned it! Our pleasure at being back in the garden was short-lived when we saw how badly this extremely wet winter had impacted on the lawn. Geoff, who is the grass man, was alarmed by the damage but soon set about repair and recovery, doing stuff known only to a grass man and, fingers crossed, in a few weeks, the bald patches will sprout new growth and the lawn will return to its former beauty.
This year we are focused on the bicentenary of Charlotte’s birth on 21st April. The museum and garden must be at their best in honour of this special occasion. The museum, of course, is already looking splendid but the garden finds it hard to be at its best in April − quite early in the season for a northerly garden – but we shall endeavour to have it looking lovely on the day. Right now we have a beautiful show of miniature daffodils, snowdrops, crocus, primulas and hellebores, to name but a few, and soon we shall see the tulips and daffodils, then primroses and cowslips.
This year’s project for me is to extend the season in the garden and to this end we planted a number of late flowering perennials so, hopefully, we shall have bloom in the garden into early November. Here's to another wonderful gardening season which will bring pleasure to us all. Cheers!
Jennie
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