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!
