March saw us wake up to the clocks going forward by an hour and the Spring Equinox, the point in the year when the hours of sunlight equal the hours of darkness just before we tip into the longer days and the promise of more sunlight and warmth.
Our gardens signal this magical time for us in minute detail. The daffodil, crocus and primrose blooms begin to give way to blossoms and magnolias opening their petals to the flying insects collecting the year’s first nectar. Joining them are the expectant green tulip heads turning their fiery shades of red or yellow. Burnt orange Erisymums join the ensemble vying for the attention of the bees in my garden, having scattered their seeds in the garden pots the previous autumn, together with the vibrant pink of a self seeded flowering currant.
The grass is long and shoots are appearing on the roses – attracting the pecks of songbirds seeking out insects. Life returns to the garden with a flit and flourish, coaxing the cover off the patio furniture ready for sitting down with a morning coffee in the fresh air to take in the theatrics.
Blue tits and great tits accompany robins and wrens in a cheery chorus. The blackbirds and magpies are busy foraging and collecting sticks. Wood pigeons and collared doves bound noisily from chimney pot to fence and back again. Their loud coos audible inside our now empty fireplaces.
Allotments boast newly turned beds, and cold frames and green houses fill up with seeds and seedlings. Herbs like rosemary are scattered with tiny flowers. Light filters in to the darker corners of the garden where ferns are beginning to unfurl, mosses spread and the sleepy shade lovers like honeysuckle and hydrangea begin to stretch out.
Shadows shorten as they yawn across our lawns, balconies and patios as the sun comes around higher and further as each day passes. The dormant garden awakes. It’s my favourite time of year.
More Than Human
In October 2025, I was fortunate enough to catch the ‘More Than Human’ exhibition at The Design Museum in London. It featured art, architecture and design works all inspired by these inimitable, magical, and transient qualities of nature. From paintings of landscapes to architectural facade systems made of fungus, to historic corn dollies made of the last sheaf of grain. The exhibition emphasised just how interconnected we humans are with the rest of the natural world.
A stand out work for me was ‘Nature Calendar’ (2022) by Marcus Coates, a British artist and ornithologist. Covering an entire wall in the exhibition, the calendar lists a different event that takes place in the natural world for each day, in every month, in the UK. It shows how animals and plants respond to each tiny change in temperature, light and magnetic current that we humans are now oblivious to, just as they, in turn, are oblivious to our Gregorian calendar. Coates’s work is described as reminding us how humans once observed other species closely to track the movements of the seasons. As we move deeper into Spring and begin to welcome the arrival of warmer temperatures on the path to summer, I have picked out a few of the wonders Marcus Coates mentions in his remarkable list of natural events for you to look out for.
On April 1st, Coates begins: ‘The mating season has started for adders; the males compete in a dance to impress females.’ 2nd April mentions the return of the first chiffchaffs, who begin to sing their name and 5th celebrates the tadpoles that abound in ponds and pools. On 13th April Coates tells us that the ash trees are flowering, on 15th that hedgehogs emerge from hibernation, and on 18th crab apples are flowering, then grey squirrels prepare their nests or drays on the 19th before the yellow archangel flower is in flower on 20th. 22nd April is when pedunculate or English oak leaves unfold. On 23rd April he notes the hawthorn hedgerows that have begun to blossom, and on 27th the first flowers of the horse chestnut tree appearing. On 30th, the last day of April, the male wren gets a mention for making several nests, of which the female will choose one.
On May 1st, Coates describes the female cuckoos arriving, with wild bluebells in full flower on 3rd. By 8th May, Coates says oaks are in flower, producing a lot of pollen, and on 11th it is the oxeye daisy’s turn to flower. He talks of butterflies abounding on 12th May: speckled wood, wall brown, green-veined white, dingy skipper on the wing. The air is full of blackbird song on 17th and on 18th, the ash is listed as one of the last trees of the Spring to come into leaf. By 22nd, Coates reminds us that most swifts have laid an egg under loose roof tiles and that fox cubs are emerging from their earths on 24th. On 25th May he tells us about the common spotted orchid, common mallow and yellow tattle being in flower before brightly coloured garden tiger moths are on the wing on 26th. 29th May sees robins have their second brood, the young of the first having already left the nest. For 30th and 31st May, he celebrates the meadows full of buttercups and the flowering of the poisonous hound’s tongue respectively.
It is an awe inspiring piece of work, reminding us of the abundance and ever changing continuity of nature, and I would recommend viewing it if you notice it arrive at a gallery near you or you can enquire about buying a print via the Kate MacGarry link in the references.
Blossoming
In the meantime, take a moment to just observe the goings on in your own outside space. However big or small, hundreds of creatures will already be busy, busy with activity.
In my own garden, the daffodils are dying back leaving space for summer flowering bulbs to emerge, and I am planting nasturtiums thinking ahead to adding the vibrant colours and flavours of their flowers to my summer salads. I don’t mow my small lawn, instead weaving a path through it to my raised beds and allowing pollinators free reign to spread pretty wildflowers throughout.
I see my sweet peas just peeping over the rim of hanging baskets and new leaves budding on a lemon tree, optimistic for a hot summer. But stealing the show are the glorious pink blossoms of my pot grown crab apple trees. My garden is too small and too surrounded by retaining walls due to our hilly city to plant any trees in the ground, so I have experimented for years with growing different varieties in pots of different sizes with varying degrees of success. My eating apple certainly looked a little sorry for itself in the autumn with its six small fruit, but the two crab apples’ boughs were laden with tiny spheres of maroon and golden yellow respectively. In mid-April, they are now brimming with blossom to match my cheery rose coloured front door. Such joy!
I have included an article by the National Trust in the references that includes choosing the best blossom trees for home gardens, which I read with interest. Sure enough, apples are in the top 5.
For my late April birthday, I have requested a cherry tree gift from my family for the same reason – in anticipation of the blossom. Cherry blossom or Sakura are famously celebrated in Japan each year in the festival known as ‘Hanami’ or Flower Viewing from late March until May. It follows the Japanese concept of ‘wabi-sabi’, which is an understanding of the exceptional transient beauty in impermanent things, just like the fleeting but beautiful presence of the sakura blossom. It signifies an acceptance of nature with all its flaws, and the ever presence of change.
References
(All web pages last accessed on Monday 6th April, 2026)
More Than Human Exhibition and Artist Marcus Coates
https://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/more-than-human
https://marcuscoates.co.uk/
https://www.katemacgarry.com/artworks/10446-marcus-coates-nature-calendar-2022/
Article on blossoming trees
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/discover/gardening-tips/gardening-tips-for-spring#rt-planting-small-trees-for-blossom
The Japanese concept of Wabi-Sabi
https://www.bbc.co.uk/travel/article/20181021-japans-unusual-way-to-view-the-world
Photography by Funda Kemal