My garden in February

I’ll admit to very little garden activity again this month, other than stopping and taking more photos - though I’m hopeful that in the next month there’ll be much more actual gardening happening. But until then, let’s look back at February, when my garden has started to wake up.

The snowdrops, which I ended last month’s post with, have continued to develop - it seems these are the tallest of the two clumps I planted last Spring, and clearly I wanted to see these as I planted them closest to the house. The other clump have made an appearance but there’s not been as many as this. I suspect that both clumps with be even better next year.

It was great to catch the sun on this part of the garden early on in the month, especially at a time when sighting the sun was a rarity. I think I’ve identified the main shrub (bottom left) as a daphne - I’ll have to double check that when it flowers though - but the sun on its leaves, and the contrast of the sun and shadows on the hebe next to it was really uplifting.

Elsewhere in the garden the hellebores have been doing their thing. I’m especially pleased to see this maroon one flower - it’s one we brought with us from London and which originated from my FIL’s garden. I’d taken the plunge and potted it into the border, just along from the cream hellebore which was already here. I thought I’d lost this one, and it still doesn’t have a huge amount of leaves - but clearly I haven’t.

the cream hellebore in flower leaning over onto the edging stones

It’s great to have a dark and light hellebore almost next to each other and both enjoying the sun. In our previous garden we had the dusky pink sort, and at some point I might add to my hellebore collection.

You may have already seen in other posts that we had a unexpected pheasant visitor to our garden this month - I’m including it here too, as it really made me smile - and wasted about thirty minutes of our day watching its antics. Aren’t the colours wonderful, and how like the brick wall are they?

There’s also been much bulb activity in my pots. The tulips have started to unfurl their leaves in their temporary spot alongside the garage. One pot seems to have developed some moss over the winter, and another now seems to be sporting four small holly seedlings which I’m not sure where they’ve come from. I think I might try and transplant them to see if they continue to grow as they could potentially be useful longer term, and well, who doesn’t like free plants?

more tulip pots and growth - though this time the left hand pot has four holly seedlings too

I did have a wry smile later in the month when I checked on the tulips again. The one with the mossy pot has dealt with it in the only way it could - and grown through it. I’m loathed to remove its mossy duvet just yet as I can imagine the weather might be a bit of a shock, but I think I’ll probably need to remove it at some point to give the tulip’s stability its best shot.

More growth from the tulips with the moss - in fact they're growing through the mossy blanket
sunlight beaming down onto the red new growth of the red robin shrub

Getting the bin in the other day (oh the glamour!) I noticed the sun on this Red Robin shrub and couldn’t help but take a snap or two - the forming flowers reminded me of coral in both their form and colour.

the same red robin bush but this time the start of the flowers - which almost look like coral with their form and colour

The other colour that’s arrived in the garden this month is the fresh lime green of the euphorbias. These are still contained in the pot that brought them from our London garden, and I still think that’s the best way of dealing with them. I’m hoping to pair them with some flowering tulips again this year - if the timings work out.

The lime green bracts of the euphorbia

I don’t yet have flowering daffodils, and it is still quite early for them, but I think these two pots by the gate are the likeliest to flower first, and I can’t wait.

In my herb planter by the back door things have been pretty sparse over the winter. I cut both the mints back and I’m waiting for them to come back with extra vigour; the flat leaf parsley has continued to provide throughout the winter and that’s been a first for me - though I often forget its there, which isn’t so good! But it’s the oregano that’s currently the star with it’s little cabbage like growth taking up a wider area than the original plant (which was close to where the plant label is), and I can’t wait to see how this goes, and how we can use it in the kitchen too.

new growth of oregano - in a wider area than before - in my herb planter
the first blue flower on my rosemary plant - clearly enjoying the sunshine

My rosemary is a tale of two plants; the older rosemary which we brought with us and suffered with wind damage but then recovered enough to plant in the outer border didn’t make it through the winter, sadly. However the newer plant is thriving. Clearly its a different variety as I never saw a flower on the older plant, ever - but this one looks as if it will deliver plenty of those, and plenty of rosemary too. I suspect that at some point I’ll be taking a cutting or two from this one to increase my rosemary chances in the future.

Thanks for joining me for this month’s update, you can read all the posts in this series, and join me next month to see how my garden continues to grow!

Walking East Stoke's lanes: February 2025

Last month’s post ended with a greyest of grey days shot looking from the bridge on Moor Lane, what I didn’t know then was that February would continue to be grey, and then some. Though at least it’s a short month, and well there wasn’t much more to say about the month until the very end when the sun did start to show itself.

So once again there was only one venture out - we have a couple of set routes, and it all depends on whether we go left or right at the crossroads, which can often be a last minute decision, though it can also be based on footwear!

We set off early afternoon, when we were hoping that the temperatures would be at their highest - and after a round of watching Six Nations matches on the TV and ahead of watching Liverpool in the FA Cup, it was good to get out and stretch our legs. We opted for a road-based walked, heading once again down Moor Lane. Our choice was rewarded by the flowering gorse as we followed the road as it rose up over the A46.

As we walked down the other side of the A46 I paused as the area alongside the bridle path (and the path to Elston) looked different, with several of the bare, twiggy shrubs down. MOH hadn’t noticed, but I think that’s one of the things that these posts do is make me more aware of my surroundings, which I’m grateful for. Looking again it was clear that some large machinery had been amongst the still-standing shrubs.

It wasn’t until we were a little further along that it became apparent why, some work had clearly taken place to clear the ditches which run alongside the fields, as they were also looking much clearer, with much less debris - and no doubt this is part of the management of the area to catch water draining off the fields and generally manage its flow safely. And to my non-qualified eye, it looks a job well done.

But it really was grey, even the buzzing electricity pylon agreed.

But at least my photo from the bridge was slightly less grey than MOH’s photo which I ended on last month - though you can still see it’s pretty grey, and murky!

Thanks for joining me for this update, if you enjoyed this post you may also like to see all of the posts in this series. It’s less than a week into the month and I’ve already got one walk under my belt, and have booked onto a guided talk and walk for next week, so I already know there’s going to be content for next month, so I hope to see you then!

This February...

Well, for a short month I seem to have a packed a lot in, including my first visit to our gym - which is good news after a stuttering start to the year - and there’s been glimpses of sun too, which always makes things better.

In the garden the snowdrops which I planted last year started to emerge; a solitary flower to start with and then slowly more flowers arrived. I’m sure over the years the two clumps I have now will spread throughout the border as is their wont - and I can’t wait. My pots of daffodils and tulips are making good progress and hopefully it won’t be too long before they make an appearance.

Wildlife antics to make me smile

A bit of sun, the garden reawakening and it’s easy to really believe that spring is on its way, but I wasn’t the only one enjoying the sun, or our garden. The garden had a visit from a wayward pheasant, and my innate city-dweller will never fail to be amazed at the beauty of wildlife when you see it first-hand - the colours of its feathers in the sunlight were truly jewel like.

Our visitor didn’t seem the smartest though, seemingly bemused by its surroundings it ran along the wall a good few times, sat down for a rest, did a few more lengths of the garden at speed before deciding that up was a good option, and landed on the top of the wall, and straight over the other side!

As predicted last month we’ve been groaning at the contestant’s efforts on The Apprentice - every series I’m amazed that none of them appear to have seen the show before, so appear to have little idea of what’s going on, or what’s required. Which on reflection is not that much different to my garden visitor!

As well as a visit to the theatre in Newark to see Ben Elton - definitely a blast from the past - we’ve been following the tribulations of Drew Pritchard’s Georgian House Restoration though (thankfully) can only imagine having to deal with the highs and heartbreaks that come with such a project. Both the England performance in the Six Nations rugby and Liverpool’s challenge for the Premier League title have kept MOH shouting (quietly) at the TV at times.

London, Liberty and a Club Orange

My exploration this month has mostly been in London with my first solo trip - not a huge adventure really, but somehow its the first time I’ve ventured down on the train on my own. I spent the day at the Garden Press Event and I’ll be sharing some more posts from my day and discoveries over the next few weeks, but it was good to get out and see people from across the gardening sector and all being enthused by what the gardening year ahead has to offer.

Making the most of my day I headed over to Liberty on Regent Street on a mission. Part of that - to secure some Falcon Enamelware failed, but the other part - to acquire some Liberty fabric, was much more successful! It was only two half metres, and on first glance not the most interesting of purchases but the two intricately grey patterned fabrics will take pride of place for my longer-term project to extend my floral fancy quilt.

I love a wander around Liberty, which manages to combine really useful things, the most amazing haberdashery and fabrics (look out for that post next week) and the truly most bizarre things - anyone for a Club Orange handbag?

A tote and clutch bag replicating the McVities Club Orange in raffia

New machines

There’s been two new machines in my craft room this month; the Sizzix die cutting machine which I promised myself after the Floral Fancy workshop. I’d looked on eBay and was tempted but decided for the small saving and peace of mind to get a new one and to make use of the Hobbycraft online offer. I also had a bit of a result as I browsed looking for similar dies that I’d used to cut out my applique shapes, finding the exact same leaf die and a similar-enough multiple sized flower die - both of these were on sale too, and so they arrived too. I’ve had a quick test and everything’s working as it should, but most of the month has been spent on my other new arrival.

And that is my new sewing machine - I’ve opted for a Bernina in a change to my previous machine, and clearly its much more modern. I’ve a couple of projects under my belt now, and they’ve helped me get comfortable using it - though there’s nothing quite so scary as when an error flashes up on its digital display, and you know you have to fix it yourself. But that’s part of the learning process, and I’m already convinced it’s a great machine. I’ll be sharing more about those ‘try out projects’ which have both already been put to use around the house.

Having a new machine did put my quilting plans back a little, as I didn’t want to muck those up (not that I think I would have, but…), but I have finished my third charity donation quilt, and made my first block for the mystery block of the month and I’m really pleased with both of them. I’ve started the test blocks for February, and they’re challenging me more than I’d like - but I’m getting there, slowly.

So hopefully there’ll be nothing to hold me back, though I’m sure as the month’s get warmer they’ll get busier and that in itself could be a whole other kind of challenge - we’ll see.