Gardeners' World - Braye Style!

We both avidly follow the BBC 2 programme, 'Gardeners' World' and find the advice both practical and relevant. One of the main topics at this time of year is the division of perennials, to provide more and healthier plants for the following season.

We regularly divide and bring back plants from our garden in England and they do very well indeed in their new home here in Braye. But one plant, resident here when we arrived, was a rather root bound Aster. You can see it to the right of the front door on the photo below taken in October 2010.

After this had finished flowering I dug it up and divided the root ball into several clumps which we planted around the garden and along the front garden wall.

The same process was repeated last year and this year we have an amazing display, much loved by the bees and butterflies who visit in their hundreds!

This year I think we have the opposite problem... Divided we fall!

Would anyone like a clump of asters?? Free and gratis!

The first butterflies of the year

We both spent much of today out in the garden, Colin giving the potager a "going over" with the motobineuse  whilst I pottered about in the flower beds, trying to look busy.

It's hard to look busy when you've a camera constantly tempting you to take photos of all that comes your way. And today there was plenty to snap.

Before I'd even got out of the house I saw this beauty on the windowsill...

Once out in the garden Colin spotted the first peacock butterfly of the year but I wasn't quick enough to photograph it.

Another spectacular "miss" was a small hummingbird-like, bee-type of creature. It looked like a cross between a tiny shrew and a small bee...(I think that should weed out those with anything short of a fertile imagination!)

Ladybirds and bees were two a penny but then came the Brimstone butterfly and I was ready...

By now I'd abandoned the pretence of being busy. I had the camera posed ready for the next potential shot and the Brimstone didn't disappoint!

It led me a merry dance round the garden; hence the variation in the backgrounds on each picture..

I was catching my breath when I spotted these; aren't these just so pretty?

They were buried under several inches of snow in sub-zero temperatures for more than two weeks yet they've  survived and are looking lovely...

Gardening is such a pleasant and uplifting pastime.... when you've a camera, rather than a motobineuse to hand!