Through the Garden Gate--January 2024

The garden in January can be a dull place.  We have had our share of storms in the last few weeks and also snow. So the garden is looking a bit battered. The grasses have been blown about and straw coloured stalks are all over the place. Tall stems of flowers with seed heads have fallen over. Leaves blown onto the beds have gone soggy. So generally the garden is not just dull but messy too. 

I have done some tidying up on the few fine days we've had.  We are encouraged now not to be too tidy in the garden and not to cut back in the autumn but leave dead plants over the winter for the wildlife. This is what I do. But come January I am always longing to get out and do something. So my work is to have a light tidy up, clearing soggy leaves and plants. Any stalks and seed heads I gather into piles and leave at the back of the border so the wildlife can still get at it. I can easily clear it away in a couple of months time.

Clearing the beds of the leaves helps to reveal any spring flowering bulbs which are coming through. I always forget where they are planted so it's always a nice surprise to find them. I now have a good show of snowdrops which are the first signs of spring in our garden and are so welcome at this dull time of year. I can also see signs of crocuses and dwarf daffodils. Other new shoots are there in the beds giving me much to look forward to especially when I can't remember what plants they are. The tulips I planted in pots for the patio in the autumn are coming through as are smaller pots of daffodils and crocuses.

The witch hazel in the woodland/wildlife bed seems to be getting better established and this year there has been more colour from it. This bed is a colourful little winter corner with the witch hazel, yellow stems of dogwood, the white bark of the birch and creamy catkins on the twisted hazel. Snowdrops and cyclamen are planted under the trees and shrubs. Underneath the witch hazel when I'd cleared away some leaves I found that  the Hellebores have pink buds soon to open.

So it's encouraging to go round the garden even on the bad days, to get signs of what's to come in only a few weeks. 

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