Gardening

I cannot remember a Spring so sunny, so dry, so filled with birdsong and blossom. Where we live usually has more cloud and sleeting rain than blue skies and brilliant sunshine. Indeed, when I told my brother, who lives in Dublin, that my husband and I were moving from Berkshire to Belfast, his first response was 'have you thought about the climate?' Belfast, he informed me, is always about 2 degrees C colder than Dublin. It turns out he was right. 
The summer is often wet. The winters always wet, and cold. But Spring can be glorious, and is especially so this year. 
Our garden is small, but we have two apple trees (Bramley and James Baird) and an acer; several varieties of clematis, honeysuckle and rose which we hope will climb up and spread along the garden fencing - hope being the operative word. We have mint, parsley, lovage, thyme and rosemary. And we have a magnificent bronze hare. But the garden, laid out and planted six years ago, was mostly left to look after itself. It now needs a lot of attention. 
We are lucky that lockdown has coincided with fine weather. I am not a natural gardener. I have a lot to learn. I turn naturally to books and the radio - and discover books on gardening for beginners 'sold out' on Amazon. I am not the only person in whom lockdown has prompted a sudden passion for gardening. We have all gone gardening mad. An online search brings up a bouquet of interesting gardening hints and encouragement, on sites such as OwntheYard.com as well as a range of articles on garden decoration.
I order a guide for beginners  from the Royal Horticultural Society. I listen attentively to Radio Ulster's 'Gardener's Corner' and Radio 4's 'Gardener's Question Time'. I buy a soil-tester. I join an long, marked out in two-metre sections queue at Homebase to buy compost, pots, bark chips, fertiliser.
Our garden has structure, but we have spaces to fill - not least to deter a charming neighbourhood cat from choosing bare patches for his toilet. So along with weeding and feeding and mulching, we need more plants. I peer into gardens on our daily exercise walk/bike ride, browse gardening books, visit websites. Decisions, decisions......