Getting back into the garden

We've had a few sunny days this week, it has been cold, but not too cold to go out in the garden to do a bit of work. There's been such awful weather the last few weeks where it hasn't been fit to go outside, so I've been keen to get out, if only for a bit of pottering round and a breath of fresh air.

There's always something to do in the garden, if it's only sweeping paths or tidying the shed. I have started clearing the leaves off the borders. They have got quite soggy and were hiding bulbs underneath. 

They were probably providing homes for slugs too. Some of the dead plant stalks which I leave standing over winter for the wildlife are ready for clearing away. I'll gradually clear those in the next few weeks. Last week's storm didn't do much damage in this area, but the grasses in the garden took quite a battering resulting in grass debris all over the place.

Looking round the garden I could see signs of new growth. The snowdrops are flowering now. I love seeing them, the first flowers of the year in the garden. 

Also flowering now are cyclamen, showing patches of pink in shady areas beneath the birch tree in the back garden and under shrubs in the front.

 Daffodils and crocuses are emerging to flower in a few weeks time. The Hamamelis (witch hazel) has copper coloured flowers which I have to walk down the garden to see. It doesn't show up well from a distance. 

January is such a long dreary month and to see signs of life in the garden gives me so much to look forward to.

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.

 

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 2022

It can sometimes be difficult to find anything to good to say about the garden in January.  It's a pretty bleak and dismal month.  I often sit at the window looking out at the garden for colour and signs of life and nothing seems to change much.  But really, there is colour and interest.  There are shades of brown and green from fallen plant material and tall gangly stems with seed heads still clinging to them, providing homes for wildlife. Sometimes I've seen little birds balancing on the stems trying to find food from the remaining seeds.

The grasses are giving colour too.  Some are straw like now, the evergreen ones giving splashes of bright green along the border. Down in the woodland bed the Witch Hazel is in flower. This one is Hamamelis 'Jelena'. The spidery flowers are a bronzy, orange colour, but I have to get close up to really appreciate it. I'm always a bit disappointed in its colour which seems a bit dull. I may have just planted it in the wrong place to show it off.

In the border alongside the path near the kitchen door is a Sarcococca (Sweet box). Its little white flowers giving off a delicate scent which wafts around this area. It has taken a few years for this to get established and produce these scented flowers.  This year it has excelled. It was growing in a pot at our previous house and we brought it with us to plant up here.

On finer days I have been out walking round the garden, looking closer for signs of life and spotting little bulbs just poking through the soil. Last year I planted more snowdrops, these are always the first to appear. It's always a delight to spot them--the first flowers of the new year and a sign that Spring will soon be with us.

After not being well and fit enough before Christmas to do any gardening, I am now feeling a bit better and  trying to keep active. I am aware that with Rheumatoid Arthritis there will be times again when I won't be able to do any gardening, so I am making the most of this time whilst trying not to overdo things. I have been slowly pottering around the garden doing jobs. I started clearing soggy leaves and plant material from the front garden flower beds and was pleased to find more spring bulbs underneath. When last year's bulb pots had finished flowering I stored them down by the side of the shed out of the way. I thought they might have rotted but after clearing the weeds out of the pots, there were the little bulb shoots coming through. So I have set these out on the outside potting bench, hoping for another good display soon.

In September we had a holiday in Cornwall and I bought some Cornish daffodil bulbs--St.Keverne and Fowey. I planted them up in the autumn into big pots and then forgot about them, but these too are now coming through.

So really there's been plenty of interest in the garden in January--even if I've had to search around for it. And there 's much to look forward to in the coming weeks.

Hope your garden is coming to life too.

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

Through the Garden Gate--January 2021

The garden has looked pretty dismal during January, either covered in snow or drenched with rain and puddles all over the bottom borders. I've often looked out of the house windows and thought the garden looked ok really (when there was no snow to hide it). But on closer inspection when the weather allowed me to get out and walk around, I could see how soggy the borders were and full of wet brown dead foliage. I know though that they will recover. All we need is some dry weather and the puddles drain away, the dead stuff dries up enough for me to clear them away and plants bounce back to life. In the past I've been concerned about the wet in the borders and if plants will survive, but in the damp borders are plants which love all that wet, so I know I will see them again.

There are signs of new life all over the garden. In the front garden, where I've planted most of the spring bulbs, I can see the green shoots of narcissi and crocus. The snowdrops are flowering now, I have to walk around to spot them though. They've only been there for the three years we have lived here and have not increased their numbers yet. It could be a long time, I think before I can see drifts of snowdrops from the house windows. But its nice to walk around and have these little surprises as new growth appears

In the back garden, the crab apple tree has delighted us with loads of bright orange/red fruit for months, but now the little apples have gone soggy. The birds are still not interested in the fruit, I don't know why. Perhaps I provide more interesting food on the bird table. Although the colour has now gone from this tree, walking round the garden down in the woodland border I can see that the witch hazel (hamamelis 'Jelena') is now in flower. This has lovely spidery, orange flowers. The contorted hazel has produced catkins, the hellebores have buds and look as if they will soon burst into flower and there are some little pink cyclamen under the silver birch.

Next to the crab apple tree there is a grass--miscanthus zebrinus which was given to me by my sister-in-law in a small pot about five or six years ago. I didn't plant it until we moved to this house and the first place I put it didn't seem to be the right place.  Now it loves where it is in full sun with plenty of space and it has really taken off. It has turned straw like now, but has some lovely feathery plumes, so still has lots of interest. Next month it will be time to cut it down ready for the new growth, but until then I will continue to enjoy looking at it.

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

A snowy start to the new year

Christmas has now been packed away in boxes, except for the evergreen wreaths at the front and side of the house.  They are still fresh looking and I don't want to take them down yet. The house looks a little bare, so I bought some daffodils the other day, which bring a little brightness and cheer. Much as I love all the sparkle and glitter of Christmas, that's over with now and I want to look forward with hope to the Spring and daffodils give me that. Things are not good in the world at the moment, worse than they have been since the start of the crisis, so we all need a bit of hope to keep us going and to know that soon this shall pass. 

After Christmas we had snow here in Lancashire, lots of it and it's taking a long time to clear.  So there's no chance of doing any gardening jobs or going to the allotment yet. I have been feeding the birds, enjoying watching them on the feeders and walking around the garden spotting the changes taking place. The crab apple still has lots of orange/red fruit on its branches which the birds have been ignoring even in this cold weather. But now the fruit is going soft and mushy on the branches perhaps it will be more attractive to them. The brightness of the berries is a lovely splash of colour against the snow.

                                              

In the autumn I planted bulbs in pots, crocus, little tete a tete daffodils and tulips. Its lovely now to see little green shoots emerging from their snow topped pots on the patio and potting bench. This is my bit of hope that over the next few weeks they will continue to grow and will soon be flowering.                                   

Also in the autumn I planted up pots of hyacinths which I kept in the garage in the dark and brought out into the light in December to grow on. Some were ready and flowering at Christmas and some will have their buds opening soon. I bring them into the warmth of the house gradually so I will have a continuous display for several weeks. 

                                             

January can be quite a dreary, depressing month even when we're not going through these bad times, but I am trying to focus on the small, simple things which make me happy.

What's helping you at the moment during lockdown?

A happy, healthy and safe New Year everyone.

Through the Garden Gate--January 2020

There's not much happening in the garden at the moment. January isn't really a good month to do any gardening and with all the rain we have had which has made the garden very soggy it's best to leave well alone.

I have been keeping the bird feeders topped up with seed and fat balls.  Last weekend I thought I would do the RSPB Garden Birdwatch.  When we moved here two and a half years ago there weren't any birds visiting the garden, but with no trees, shrubs or plants of any description it wasn't surprising that all the birds bypassed our garden. Now we have a lovely garden full of plants to attract the wildlife and we love to watch the birds. Most of our regular birds, however decided not to visit us in the hour I chose to watch out for them. In a short space of about ten minutes there was a sudden flurry of activity on the bird table and I managed to count three woodpigeons and fourteen starlings.  There was no sign of the robin, the blue tits, sparrows and blackbirds.

I still have some hyacinths in the shed which I potted up in the autumn.  They stay cool in the shed so  I can bring them in to the house gradually.

Last year I bought some snowdrops in the green and planted them around the garden late February so I have been looking forward to seeing them in flower this year.  I enjoy wandering around the garden spotting them coming into flower. 100 snowdrops seemed a lot at the time of buying them but they don't go very far and it will be several years before we can see lovely clumps of them. I will just have to enjoy seeing them in other people's gardens.

I  recently bought some pots of crocus from the garden centre and also found some pots of  mini daffodils down the side of the house left from last year. So I had a pleasant hour on a fine, dry day last weekend  planting these up in a border in the side garden. I will be able to see these from the house so hopefully they will provide a bit of colour in a few weeks time.

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

Through the garden gate--February

 The garden is starting to wake up, little clumps of bulbs and primroses are flowering in the borders. Crocus, daffodils and cyclamen which I planted last year are looking bright and colourful.

There are some lovely blue pulmonaria flowering now, they are always early and bring some welcome colour to the garden at this time of year. I brought these from my old garden and they have taken well to their new home.

Last year I planted 50 snowdrops in the green and planted them around the garden. But 50 snowdrops doesn't go very far. So this year I ordered 100 and I have planted them all in one place, under a big weigela in the front garden. This should give me a better display. It's a shame that I have to wait until next year to see the result. 

I've started tidying the borders, cutting back the dead flower foliage which I had left over the winter for the wildlife. February is a bit too early to start disturbing the soil as the new plant growth is just starting to come through and I didn't want to damage anything. I'm still trying to remember which plants are in there as it was all newly planted up last year and I don't always label my plants.  As I worked my way around the beds I was doing a bit of planning as some of the plants were planted in the wrong place last year and will need to be moved. That's a job for March when everything has grown a bit more.

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