Through the Garden Gate --February 2023

February came with more sunshine, but quite cold at times.  I did  have to keep reminding myself it was only February, but I think a lot of gardeners like me are longing to get back to doing their gardens whenever there is some decent weather.

There are signs of new life all over the garden and little pops of colour as buds open up.  Gradually over the next few weeks more of this new growth will be bursting into flower. The snowdrops have continued to delight me and are still flowering away.  The pots of tete a tete and tulips from last year are showing buds so I brought them out of the corner where I store them over winter and put them out ready  to brighten up the patio.  I got a lovely surprise early on in February when I spotted these little irises in flower, later on in the month as they died down the tete a tete popped up.  

We wondered if we would get any frog spawn in the little pond we made last year but all I've seen so far is a dead frog! No new life there then.

I've been out in the garden, tidying the beds of dead plants, they look a bit empty now but soon they will fill out as plants come back from their winter rest.  

Last week we bought bark and soil improver. The bark has gone on the hosta bed in the front garden and more will go in the back garden on the woodland bed. It looks lovely now as the tete a tete and crocus are starting to flower. I bought some cyclamen coum plants for this area as they grow well in shade and under trees.  They should spread about more each year as they get established.  The soil improver I will use as a mulch for the other beds.  I've started spreading that in the back garden, not finished yet, it will take a few more bags of mulch to get around all the beds.

February is the time to cut the old growth from the grasses which die down in the winter. We have a few big, tall clumps in the back garden and I have been working on them.  They create a lot of mess when they are cut down.  There were grass stalks all over the place. I'm hoping that the birds will make use of  some of it when they start nest building. 

One really big grass we have is a Miscanthus Zebrinus. It's a really lovely grass and provided us with a lot of screening when we were on the patio, but it had grown too big and it was time to dig it up and divide it. It caused more mess with grass stalks all over the lawn which Holly enjoyed playing with. Now it's been split up I will plant a smaller section back in the bed it came from.

The garden is looking good after it's tidy up and I'm feeling happy that at the moment we are fairly on top of our spring garden jobs.  

I am linking this blog post to Sarah's blog at 'Down by the Sea' for her monthly 'Through the Garden Gate'   post

Through the Garden Gate--January 2023

We've had some bad weather during January.  At the beginning of the month it was very rainy, I was longing for it to stop so I could get out in the garden to do some tidying up jobs. That was not to be because after the rain came snow again. It was very cold and the the snow took some time to melt. How glad I was when finally it cleared away. It was still very cold but I could wander around the garden and I was so pleased to see bulbs coming through especially the snowdrops. The snowdrops are flowering now and seem to look better every day.

Down in the woodland bed the Witch Hazel is in flower. The variety is 'Jelena'--a bronze colour, but I'm a bit disappointed with it as it's quite a dull colour.  It was one of the first shrubs I planted when we moved here 5 years ago and I'm wondering now if I should have chosen a yellow variety which might have been brighter. 

Also in the woodland bed there are primroses just trying to flower and a few little pink cyclamen. I noticed too that the Hellebores have buds so will be flowering soon.

In the border near the kitchen door there is a Sarcococca (Sweet Box) which is flowering with pretty white flowers and a lovely delicate scent which wafts around the garden.

Some of the container plants have perked up, this little trough with white hellebores was planted up just before Christmas and didn't look too great at the time but it's looking quite pretty now.

We've been doing a lot of catching up work on the allotment now the weather has improved so not much has been done in the garden. There's a lot of dead plant material which is now brown and soggy and not very attractive looking. 

So the garden isn't looking great at the moment, I have to search around for little spots of colour. But I'm sure the weather will improve soon and I will be able to get out and tidy up. 

I am linking this post  to Sarah's blog at 'Down By the Sea' for her monthly 'Through the Garden Gate' post.