A sunny weekend in the courtyard

Oh what a sunny weekend we have just had! After weeks of grey days and so much rain, finally the clouds cleared. Enjoying the rare chance to get outside, I bounced round the courtyard looking at how things were growing. The clematis has bloomed making our courtyard space look so spring-like and pretty...

 

There are hundreds of delicate pink flowers hanging into our courtyard space. I feel very lucky to be greeted with this beautiful display of pink flowers each day, however it doesn't stay this way for long...I will try and make the most of it while the flowers last. It wont be long until the petals start to fall and litter the courtyard with a carpet of pollen and petals. It has already begun with the heavy rain and wind we have had recently.

Looking up and seeing the blue sky made me smile and I wished that the good weather would continue.

The hosta is almost fully grown again. It always surprises me that each year it keeps coming back! It dies back to an empty pot then makes another appearance, each year growing bigger and bigger. It feels like a good investment when plants do this!

With only a few plants in our little courtyard you start recognising the patterns and know when they will grow...The clematis blooms then little purple flowers from a trailing plant on our courtyard walls start to appear...

 

...and at the same time the lillies normally flower bringing so much colour and life to the courtyard, however they seem a bit behind schedule this year. The lillies just keep growing taller and taller, but they now have grown buds where the big pink flowers will appear from. I can’t wait for these to bloom. I’m a big fan of lillies and probably should get more to fill our space with lots of colour while other plants are just getting kick started.

This weekend I took time to sit in our little courtyard looking carefully at the plants that have survived the rainy weather and the slugs! The rain and cold weather has put me off getting outside and buying any new plants, so apart from the plants you can see above, our courtyard is looking a little unloved. With the motivation that some of my existing plants growing nicely I think I will get stuck in soon and make our space a little haven. I’ve started thinking about what I want to plant, I definitely want to try and grow a mixture of flowers, veg, herbs and salad leaves. Window boxes of flowers are definitely part of the plan...perhaps some red and white geraniums...I definitely want to grow some simple flowers in pots too so I think I'll see if I can buy some daisies, lavender, pansies and hope that the nasturtiums I'm growing from seed grow a bit more. I think a few new pots are needed to brighten up the space even more, I love the big blue glazed ones...

This weekend I saw how the sunlight lit certain parts of our courtyard. It made me think that I should definitely do a bit of shuffling round of the pots and containers before I start growing things again to make the most out of the little spaces where sunlight falls.

But before I get too excited about planting I need to keep an eye on the weather...both yesterday and today we had hail, lots of heavy rain and it was really quite cold...I hope the warm weather makes a proper appearance soon! Rain rain go away!