Here in the UK we have a 4 day weekend over Easter, always a welcome break and usually my first time off work since the Christmas break. I took a couple of extra days so effectively had a 6 day weekend, the best kind. I had big plans to finish the decorating indoors, but the weather was really good and I decided I’d rather spend it in the garden. Having killed everything I grew last year, and having vowed not to grow anything from seed this year, I find I am lacking plants to fill gaps in the borders. A swift but eye-wateringly expensive visit to the garden centre resolved that issue and I spent a good part of my break weeding and planting. Hopefully I will see the fruits of that over the summer. I still have gaps, but I have some dahlias coming into growth, and I may break my vow and sow some cosmos, I’m not sure I can bring myself to spend a fortune on annuals.

1 – Tulip ‘Slawa’. Another “in the ground” group, they have lasted a few years now but are gradually reducing in number, there are about half left this year.

2 – Wisteria sadness. I was a bit optimistic the other week when I confidently predicted a good wisteria year. No such luck, unfortunately, the one hard frost we’ve had in recent weeks was sufficient to put the mockers on it for this year. This leaves me with just the annoyance of dealing with the rampant growth with no payoff to make it worth my while. Sigh.

3 – Lupin. Among the plants I bought last weekend were three lupins. I like lupins, but so do the slugs and snails, so this may be the very definition of an exercise in futility. I am hopeful they are big enough to survive some munching and that they will at least flower this year, even if they get mown to the ground next year on emerging.

4 – Cornus ‘Midwinter Fire’. This shrub is a few years old, grown from an offset given to me by a neighbour. It grew enough last year for me to consider giving it its first hard prune. I took the plunge a few weeks ago, and after sulking for a bit, doing a dead stick impression, it is now bursting forth with new growth. Hopefully this will grow vigorously and be nice and colourful this winter.

5 – Fern, old and new. Among the jobs I did not get done last weekend was trimming the old growth away from these hart’s tongue ferns. They look scruffy as a result, I shall tackle them this weekend. Probably.

6 – Tulip ‘Palestrina’ [check name] Rather similar in the end to last week’s ‘Sunrise Dynasty’, they are lovely nevertheless.

Those are my Six, what are yours? If you’d like to have a go, just publish your post and pop a link in the comments below. If you also mention in my blog in yours that would be splendid. For more details you can read the brief participant guide.

Have a super weekend in the garden, if you can.

I’ll be back next weekend with another #SixOnSaturday.