Brightening up the winter

 

There's a lot of thinking ahead and planning required with gardening. Way back in October I bought bulbs, some for the garden some for the house. I planted tete a tete daffodils and crocus in pots for outside and hyacinths for the house. The hyacinths were put under the bench in the shed where it was dark and cool.

In December when the shoots were starting to grow I brought them out and put them on top of the bench in front of the window to get some light. I had several pots and bowls of hyacinths and I have been gradually bringing them into the house. As one plant starts to go over I bring another pot inside, giving me hyacinths flowering over several weeks. The smell is lovely and they brighten up the house so well.

Every year when I plant these bulbs I always think it seems ages before they will be flowering, but it is worth the wait. Outside the narcissus and crocus pots are starting to grow and I know there will soon be spring colour on the garden table.

Garden calling

The garden has been calling me for a week or two now. But I have been neglecting it and giving all the attention to the allotment. Not that this time of year and the current weather conditions are really gardening weather. But a gardener will always find something that needs to be done. Having spent most of January doing jobs around the allotment I decided that I needed to give some time to the garden. The garden does tend to take second place to the allotment, but it's good to see that it can look after itself for a lot of the time.

In the autumn I cut back some of the very messy looking dead plants and left the rest--the grasses and seed heads, to give some interest through the winter and provide homes for insects and food for the birds  I decided that now was the time to finally cut back these plants and get ready for spring. I was glad to cut the grasses down, there were bits of dried grass blowing about all over the garden. Not sure if that was the result of the winter storms or Holly the cat who likes to roll about in them. Holly supervised as I worked and was probably a bit miffed that I had destroyed her playground. The birds might feel a bit more secure now that she can't hide behind clumps of plants as she likes to do, ready to pounce.

The garden looks a bit flat now, but soon new shoots will be appearing and the empty areas of the borders will fill up. As I cut back I discovered some treasures-- snowdrops, narcissi, crocus. I also found a lovely pink hellebore flowering for the first time since I bought it from a charity plant stall two years ago. The  hamamelis, otherwise known as witch hazel is now flowering. It's yellow spidery flowers are a welcome bit of colour at this time of year.  I  potted up some tete a tete narcissi into small pots to display on the garden table.  These can  be seen from the house and look brighter every day as a few more flowers open up.

As I worked on the borders, Richard dug out some compost from the compost bins.  He managed to fill an old dustbin. My next job after I have finished clearing all the borders of debris will be to mulch the borders with compost or leaf mould, but I will need more than a dustbin full of compost for that.

Woodland planting

 The woodland area in our garden tends to get a bit neglected. That's because it's hidden away at the top of the garden through a little gate. I clear it up about two or three times a year. But as it's a bit of a wildlife area it doesn't look too bad for being left to look after itself. Spring is the time when It gets its first tidy up. There are lots of crocuses which start to emerge about now so I like to clear up all the leaves and tree branches which have fallen during the autumn and winter and reveal some colour from these flowers. There's ivy, vinca and honeysuckle scrambling along the fence too which always need cutting back. I noticed this week that the vinca is flowering, I love those little blue flowers at this time of year. There's also a clump of hellebores which is looking lovely.

I started the clear up last week. Once I'd cleared away all the debris and done the cutting back I was able to see what else is coming through and soon to flower. There was a small clump of mini daffodils amongst the crocus. I thought some snowdrops were needed, every woodland garden should have snowdrops. I planted three little pots, but they looked lost--you don't get many snowdrops in a little pot. I shall have to get more. I also bought some trays of tete a tete daffodils for some more instant colour. Holly the cat joined me as I planted and must have thought it was some sort of game as she kept digging up the bulbs--naughty cat!

Planting  so early in the year I had to be careful of not disturbing any other plants which had not started to show through.  The soil is  a bit compacted with roots which can make planting difficult.   Plant labels always seem to disappear through the winter and I often struggle to remember what is in there. What are those tiny leaves just poking through the soil? Ah yes I know--Brunnera!
It's looking much better now, more colourful and very spring like.