Through the Garden Gate--January

January is that month in the year when gardeners are feeling restless. they want to get outside to do things,  but the weather is not good, the soil is usually too wet to be able to plant anything and it's best for the garden to just leave things alone for  a few weeks.

It's a time to rest, to plan ahead and look forward to the Spring.  That's how |I have been feeling these last few weeks, I have been longing to get out into the garden and when I have been out there I've realised that there is nothing I can do yet.

We had some fine dry days early in the month, but then the cold set in and we had our first snow of the winter. The garden takes on another look when it is covered in snow. Much as I don't like the snow I love to see how it changes the look of the garden.

I didn't cut back in the autumn, I left the dead plant foliage and seed heads to give some winter interest and provide food for wildlife. When the seed heads and grasses are covered in snow they look lovely.

Although the January days are dark and dreary, I love to walk around and see what's growing. Our garden was only created last year so all the plants were newly planted. I've been keen to see how everything has survived in the new garden. There are buds on trees and shrubs. New growth is appearing at the base of perennial plants and there are bulbs coming through. The snowdrops I planted last year are flowering--there aren't many yet but I hope to add to them this year.

The witch hazel (Jelena) has grown really well and now has lovely orange flowers which seemed to pop open overnight.

The hellebores which I planted last year are flowering too. I really like these pink flowered ones

We have had more snow so still no gardening for a while  yet.

What's your garden looking like at the moment?

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

Snowdrop time

It's that time of year when the snowdrops start to appear. They pop up all over the place. There are drifts of them in our local park. Down the lane where we walk every morning we see clumps of them peeping out from the garden of the house on the corner.  There are more clumps which have escaped into the hedgerow along the lane. I have some in the garden and at the allotment and every year I plant a few more in the hope of getting a lovely display.

The snowdrop seems to be loved by so many people.  For me they are a sign that life goes on, they appear at a dark time of year, one of the first flowers of the year and a promise of more to come. They grow, they flower, they die down, they have a rest then they come back again. I suppose that's true for many more flowers, but the snowdrop comes to life at a time of year which is quite gloomy It's a reminder of that hope which we so often need at this time of the year, a promise that Spring isn't too far off.

It's the start of the growing season. As we come out of the darkness of winter, more plants are coming to life and we can look forward to more colour in our gardens and in the countryside. Soon we can start work in our gardens and allotments--some of us have started already!

Into a dark world

a snowdrop comes

a blessing

of hope and peace

carrying within it

a green heart

symbol of God's renewing love

Grey days and a muddy plot

 The days are shorter now and are often  grey and gloomy. We've not been down to the allotment much recently, being busy at home and in the garden. But work has slowed down and after clearing and manuring some of the beds, it's a matter of waiting until other beds are cleared of vegetables before I can continue to manure and weed.  The shed has been tidied and cleaned out and the greenhouses have been cleared of the tomatoes and chillies and also cleaned out. So everything is fairly ok.

There are  still plenty of vegetables which will keep us going through the winter. There's fennel, leeks, kale, cabbage and beetroot and we go down about once a week to pick what we need.  There are also the onions, garlic and apples which are stored in the shed.

We went down a couple of weeks ago after some very heavy rain to check if the drains were still working and the plot wasn't waterlogged.  We were pleased to see that all was well, but it was quite muddy and I didn't feel inclined to do any work

Winter is the time to catch up with jobs on the allotment and now that the plants in the bog garden have died back I can see that the pond needs sorting out.  The compost bin needs turning but when we were there last week everything was frozen solid so we couldn't do any work or dig up any vegetables. There's an untidy area under the hedge where stuff tends to get dumped. I want to tidy this up and put it to better use. So there is plenty to do when we have more time.

The allotment seems to be having a rest for a while, but once Christmas is over we will be back

Clearing up the plots

As the days get shorter, we are now spending less time at the allotments. There are still plenty of jobs to be done though, but we tend to go down just for a couple of hours with a specific job to do without having our usual lunch or cups of tea.  Beds are gradually being cleared and then weeded and manured. It's a busy time trying to get them ready for winter.

The peas and courgettes have all been cleared and the climbing french beans will soon be finished with. The cabbage beds are quite full of produce still.  Kale, Brussels sprouts, sprouting broccoli, red cabbage and Calabrese will keep us going through the winter.

The summer cabbage and cauliflowers are now all done with and we have planted some garlic where they were in one of the beds on plot 8. In the roots beds there are still plenty of beetroot and some tiny celeriac. They will probably be left there for a while.

As they start to look messy, we pull up the flowers in the cut flower beds. From a distance they look good but close to we can see that most of them are not good enough to cut now. The dahlias however are still going strong and we are cutting as many as we can before the frosts finish them off and that may not be long off now.

At the weekend we cleared all the tomatoes out of the polytunnel. I was glad to get them out and the place cleaned up because I think there are mice in there. We have found holes in the soil and teeth marks in the tomatoes which had dropped off the plants onto the soil.  It looks very empty now and we are thinking about what we can grow over the winter.  At home I now have tomatoes all over the place, so I need to make something with them.

 

The only thing to do is go out for a walk

We're having some pretty cold weather at the moment, but fortunately where I live we haven't had much in the way of snow to disrupt transport and getting out and about. What little we had last weekend has now gone.

We have had some really sunny, but very cold days. Days which deceive you into thinking it's really OK outside until you go out to do something like putting rubbish in the bin or feeding the birds and then you realise how cold it is.

 

On these really cold, sunny days I've often thought how inviting the garden looks and how I would love to be outside doing some gardening. But of course the ground is frozen solid, so I can't do any work out there. I get a bit restless when the weather is dry, but I can't do any gardening.  Sometimes staying indoors and keeping warm isn't enough for me. I need to be outside in open spaces. Today was one of those days, and the only thing to do when this restlessness hits me is to go out for a walk.

It's amazing what half an hour or so of walking can do to calm your mind and lift your spirits.

A Winter walk

It seems to be a popular activity for many people to go out walking during the Christmas and New Year break. After all the extra food and drink we have consumed  and all the busyness of the weeks leading up to Christmas it's always good to go out, get some excercise, burn off those extra calories and blow the cobwebs away.  A good walk leaves you feeling refreshed, spiritually, mentally and physically.  Well that's how I feel about it anyway.

It seems to have done nothing but rain for the last few days, but today was dry and sunny so  R and I set off out for our first walk of the Christmas break. It was very cold, a sharp contrast to the mild weather of the past few days, but we were well wrapped up.

We are lucky in that whatever direction we set off from we can be in countryside within 5 or 10 minutes of our house. The walk we took today was along the course of an old railway line.  It's a walk we always seem to do after Christmas, I don't know why. And every year I say we must come along here in the summer when the trees are in leaf and there will be more colour.  But we never do.  It is a lovely place to walk with marvellous views across fields and the starkness of the bare leaved trees has a special beauty.  I do love trees without leaves.

We were back home in just over an hour, it was long enough to be out in that chill wind, but we both felt refreshed and full of enthusiasm to do some more walking another day.