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.

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?

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.

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 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.

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.

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!

Inside the fabric and haberdashery departments at Liberty

Having filled my cup as it were with the homewares in Liberty I headed further upstairs to the fabric and haberdashery departments, which for me could be a much more dangerous place for my purse! Initially I headed past the world famous prints and into the haberdashery - perhaps attracted by all the shiny things, who knew?

I couldn’t think of any good reason to buy any of the buttons or ribbons, but was totally in awe at the choice of buttons and almost instantly transported back to ‘The Button Shop’ in South Norwood High Street in the seventies, though to be clear I don’t think it could ever claim to be on a par with Liberty, but I do remember endless displays of all colours, sizes and shapes of button nonetheless.

I was intrigued by the artwork on the walls too - though again it’s not for the fainthearted at a mere £2,495 - my usual don’t look at the price routine scuppered by the label below. But it was very nice, though part of me wonders if this was the wrong department to hang this, as surely crafters are more likely to think to themselves ‘I could do that’ though admittedly it would also probably go onto a long list, and they’d probably never quite get around to it!

The haberdashery was laden with baskets of tempting Liberty fabric - some already made into pincushions, and others into equally pretty rolls and bundles. I was tempted, but out of the corner of my eye I saw the wall of quilting fabric and I had a new destination in mind.

Yes a wall of shelving of Liberty Quilting fabric, which was actually less densely populated with customers than most of the rest of the departments put together. And for Liberty the majority of this range wasn’t extortionate. Clearly I was tempted by the bright and pretty colours, but also I remembered that I was on a ‘grey fabric shopping’ general mission, and so I hunted out the greys, of which there were at least five different shades to choose from! I left with half a metre of a dark and a light grey to add to the stash for my extended Floral Fancy.

Having paid I left the haberdashery before any more damage could be done, and headed into the almost equally dangerous fabric department. Actually it’s probably less dangerous as I think if you’re spending this much on fabric you really need to have a plan. The Tana Lawn fabrics were easily ten pounds more than the quilting fabric I’d just purchased.

But they are ever so nice. And iconic. But also which one to choose?

For me I think I’m destined to have do something with the Ianthe range (pictured above) as every time I visit, or even look online I always find myself drawn to this design - but as yet, I’ve not bought any. I love the design and how elegant it is, but I’m still holding out until I have a plan as otherwise I don’t think I’d ever cut into it. Ever. Though actually that’s not such a bad plan either now is it?