We have had just 3 mm of rain this month. The average for April in London is around 40 mm with 10 to 16 rainy days. We have had just one this month. In a couple more weeks our barrels will be dry. At least, we have a tap. I think of farms and how they suffer at times like this. Spring wheat and vegetables have been planted, but the fields will be barren unless it rains or they can irrigate. I have been watering our flax every couple of days, and they have responded. If I had left them to the weather, I think there would be bare soil.
The cherry blossom is almost gone. Such brief magnificence. It drops quickly from the tree, scattering the path below and the pavement outside the garden. I saw a couple take photos under the tree. But now a memory. Although the hawthorn nearby remains in bloom. It has been increasing year by year.
We pull out blanket weed from the pond. It is a filamentous algae, most likely spirogyra, also called silk weed. It grows very fast as the weather warms and the days get longer. We have a nitrogen rich pond which the plant loves. Blanket weed is common in ponds; it hasn’t just picked us out. There are many chemical remedies but we are not taking that road. We pull it out, an ongoing battle, as it grows again quickly. Blanket weed smothers other plants and darkens the pond leading to poor growth of oxygenators, like hornwort and elodea. Being underwater, it is an oxygenator itself, but leave it to grow, and it will be the only plant you have. A complete take-over. So we keep pulling it out.
We have our pump bubbling away. It adds oxygen to the pond, lessening the damage of blanket weed, by helping to keep pond fauna alive. I have not seen any pond skaters this year. Nothing to do with blanket weed. The drought is not good for them, though. They are a sign of the general loss of insect life due to climate change. Our donated tadpoles seem to be thriving. And I am told we have newts but I have not seen any. They tend to be deeper in the pond and hide away under plants.
Zak Polanski, the leader of the Greens, came into the garden this morning. A group of Greens have been meeting here on Saturdays before going out canvassing for the coming election. Zak came along to encourage them. Over the years, we have had Labour councillors coming in quite often. And the Mayor too. The Garden is not party political.
We are awaiting the results of PPP (People Powered Places) funding. The council is not meeting until after the election on May 7th. So PPP results won’t come out till after then. Newham has been a Labour borough since its inception in 1965, but there could be change this year. Possibly a coalition. Cross fingers PPP funds won’t get caught up in any power struggle. The funds are for our 10th anniversary celebration on 28 June, if we get them.
April is the month of leaves. All our trees are now in full foliage. At the beginning of the month, some had barely begun, with bud swelling but not much more. But now all are in leaf. New leaves have that soft, light green colour, which darkens as the months pass. Leaves are the food factories of the trees. Taking in carbon dioxide, with water drawn up from the roots, the chlorophyll in the leaves, with sunlight, creates glucose which is essential for plant growth and setting of seeds.
There’s a guelder rose tree, in a container near the front gate, in flower with bunches of white florets. It is not a rose of any sort of course but in the viburnum family (Viburnum opulus). It was brought to this country from Holland in Tudor times where it was popular in the province of Gelderland.
There are the beginnings of flowers on the olive tree. I wonder if we’ll get any olives. We had just four two years ago, but none at all last year. There are female flowers on the walnut tree, but the male catkins have died. We will only get walnuts if there is a walnut tree which has catkins not too far away to pollinate ours.
There’s borage flowering the in the wildflower bed, along with marigolds. Freshly planted wildflowers are just coming up. We shall have to keep them well watered if we want a good showing.