Spring at Easton

March, April and May. The days just get better. The gardens are full of Spring flowers AND there is still the feeling of anticipation for the warmth and big flowers of summer. Our meadows are filling with a succession of daffodils, from our native varieties right through to the pheasants eye narcissus at the end of the season. Around the fringes of our cultivations are wild flowers providing early nectar for queen bumblebees and a food source for larvae.

This year is a good violet year. Dark purple, lilac and white wild violets edge the woodland walk and clumps of violet draw your eye on the snowdrop bank.



The marsh marigold. Introduced by us from a wild form further up in the gardens, it is flourishing in the ditch on the snowdrop bank.



Native ladybirds. When the big brute of an american ladybird arrived here we thought it was curtains for these little fellows but they seem much better adapted to our climate than their cousins and continue to flourish.Now they are coming out of hibernation.

At this time of year even a glimmer of sunshine is enough to take me outside to weed, if its too cold to work for long there is always pricking out in the greenhouse.