Signalling Spring

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12th March 2021

There is no better way to freshen up a home after a long winter, than

Signalling Spring

There is no better way to freshen up a home after a long winter, than with flowers. Keep reading to find out how we’re welcoming this gorgeous season inside and out, and how we’ll be making the most out of Spring.

We love this time of year in our garden. The spring wildflowers are starting to pop their heads above ground, the blossom on the trees are starting to show and there is a sense of a fresh start – this year, more than any, we need that.

Gardening was our release during Lockdown I, and we missed being able to have our hands in the earth over winter. With the arrival of spring we are excited to start again. Our children love the garden too and we let the pick the raspberries from the bush, cut flowers for their bedrooms and collect bugs for their tree house.

The one thing that truly heralds spring at our house is the return of the swallows. They usually appear in early April and when they do it is like the first day of Advent but with slightly warmer weather. They have been holidaying in Africa and return every year to feed and breed all across the Northern Hemisphere. Our garden has started signing with cuckoos, nightingales and even a willow warbler, but it is the sight of the swallow that signals spring.

garden rose

Setting a scene and filling it with flowers is a simple way to keep spirits high. In a vase, on the wall, in a pot or tucked in your hair. Surrounding yourself with reminders of life makes the winter blues a distant memory. As winter becomes spring, flowers remind us that warmer days are coming. A small bunch of simple daffodils or some early blossom are the tonic to relieve the dark blues mood.

There is a silent eloquence
In every wild bluebell
That fills my softened heart with bliss
That words could never tell

– Anne Bronte, The Bluebell

A tiny vase with a few daffodils, a pot of snowdrops on the kitchen table and a branch of early blossom in the living room give me a lift after such a miserable winter. Our house will be filled with bits and pieces from the garden from now until early autumn. I take the opportunity on a morning to grab my secateurs and prune a rose and pinch a few of our gardens bounty to brighten up the house.

Jobs for early spring in the garden

jobs for the garden

  • Prune and feed roses
  • Mulch around all plants with good compost
  • Rake out any lawn thatch and apply organic lawn feed
  • Get early supports in around all tall growing perennials
  • Plant sweet peas in pots and pop on a sunny window sill
  • Tidy the shed