My garden in March

This past month there’s been actual gardening, and our garden bin has been full enough to empty twice - isn’t spring great?! Though after cutting the buddleia down the bin also had more than its fair share of ladybirds so while the lid is up while I’m working, I always wedge it open with a small stone so they can crawl out of their own accord when the fancy takes them.

There was a few immediate things for my to do list, including taming the buddleia as I know it’ll need a couple more trims over the summer, and trimming the spike in the bush below. We can see this from the house and it’s the only one that’s peaked above the top of the wall, so it had to go.

BEFORE

AFTER

Ah, that’s better!

It’s been great to see things spring back into life this month, and to see so many insects too. I got lucky photographing this bee in the creamy green hellebores, and I’m glad it was enjoying them even more than me.

It’s also been a month for trying to get on top of the weeds, some of them have been huge.

But thankfully as the ground is still pretty wet they’ve come out easily. Though with weeds being weeds they’ve managed to grow in the awkwardest of places, which includes under the prickly mahonias so I’ve ended up with quite a few scratches getting to them, and getting them out.

A single hyacinth appeared in the side of the large plastic rhubarb pot, which then flowered and fell over - but looked very photogenic all the way through!

The wallflowers too have sprung to life. I’d noticed last month that they’d ‘bushed out’ quite a lot, this month flower heads started to form and gradually opened sharing their yellow, orange and pink flowers - these are such a favourite of mine and it’s good to see the plant doing so well. My plan is to keep some seed once they’ve flowered so I can grow more to use elsewhere in the garden. Last year I scattered some seeds, but I haven’t seen any new plants yet - though I could have ‘weeded’ them in all honesty.

The grass has had its first cut thanks to MOH. He’s also started to clean the patio, which will be a long job. Though after his success with the trial Monty Miracle we’ve bought some more to use on the rest of the patio.

BEFORE

AFTER

The crab apple tree, which was still laden with mostly rotten crab apples and much visited by the local blackbirds, also got a trim. I left some of the rotting fruit as I know the black birds have been feeding on these, but it had grown so much it needed a trim. My plan is to prune this alternate years, so hopefully that will work out fruit-wise too.

It’s already got green shoots on it following its prune, so that’s a relief!

We’ve had all the weather this month, but the wind and the rain was tough for the new olive tree. It started the month still wrapped in its winter bubble wrap, and I knew that it wouldn’t last this day. I wasn’t wrong and once it was off the pot - thanks to the wind - there was nothing else for it, but to go out and remove it entirely. I was concerned that otherwise the bubble wrap would act as a sail and the olive tree would be really up against it.

The acer by the back door has gone from just about showing leaves to unfurling its new growth in about a week and a half, and I’m sure it won’t be too long before it’s in full leaf.

I’ve had less success with my daffodils, managing a whole three flowers in total. I definitely need to show those bulbs some love once they’ve died back and I’ve decided to go more traditional and plant them in the flower beds. I’m probably also going to follow some advice shared in one of our local garden visits, which is to buy a pack of bulbs each time we got to a garden centre and shove them in the ground too. Thankfully we don’t go to a garden centre that often, but you know what I mean.

That way I shouldn’t have such a daffodil free spring next year!

It’s been great to enjoy some sunny days in the garden too, and managing to get our gardening time to coincide with at least a couple of those. And I’m so pleased that the rosemary outside the lounge window has also bulked out over winter, and it’s in flower too which I’m not sure I ever really saw from our previous rosemary bush - maybe it just wasn’t that type of rosemary.

I’ve still plenty to do in the garden, but that’s how life is for the next few months - and it’s going to be great!

My garden in February

Last month I said the snowdrops were coming, well this month they arrived. These giant snowdrops are my absolute favourites and I can’t wait for them to take themselves for a wander around the border!

I can spot these from inside the house, and each time I do I’m reminded what a great idea it was to plant them there!

Once again there’s been very little actual gardening activity this month but as well as enjoying peeking on the snowdrops, there’s been some pretty sunsets too. Though isn’t it great that sunset is now past 5pm, and won’t be before 5pm until much later in the year.

The mahonia is doing its thing and looking glorious, I love how the berries have that pink tinge and think it’s a plant that looks very regal with its crown of berries.

Elsewhere in the garden I’ve seen evidence of daffodils, so I’m hoping that they will enjoy the warmer days we’ve had towards the end of the month, and will quite literally march into March. I know that I need to spend some time with all my bulbs in pots after this growing season, but I’m hoping that they’ll give a good show before I refresh their soil and get them ready for flowering next year.

Alongside the mahonia the other star in our garden right now is the creamy green hellebore, isn’t it gorgeous?

The elephants ears we brought with us from London are also in flower and while they could do with a general tidy, they’re doing pretty well contending with that huge weed on the right. I’ve plenty of weeding opportunities too, so as it looks like the weather is going to be good that’s at the top of my list, and to be honest I can’t wait to do some actual gardening, just as long as the weather’s fine!

Fingers crossed for a dry and uplifting spring!

My garden in January

The rose from last month had peaked when I shared it here, but even as it declined in January’s wet, cold and windy weather it did so elegantly, or I think so at least.

We did manage a brief spell of loosely labelled gardening activity - we needed to remove the ‘creative Christmas tree’ - which I delegated to MOH, and I wanted to wrap up the new olive’s pot. I should have done it before now I know, but I hadn’t and I was lucky with the weather, and my timing as it turned out.

While MOH circled the creative Christmas tree unwinding the lights, I set about covering the pot with bubble wrap and enough tape to ensure I wouldn’t be chasing the covering around the garden! I was rather pleased with my effort (above), and I was even more pleased when I opened the blinds the next morning and saw the dusting of snow (below).

We didn’t have much snow, just a dusting, but then again we didn’t have much heating at this point either so it wasn’t great. Thankfully the snow didn’t last long, and the heating was back limping along soon after, though I did feel for the heating engineer who needed to be working outside to make this happen.

But to be honest there hasn’t been much activity in our garden this month, though there are signs of life - the snowdrops are starting to form and even flower, and there’s evidence of bulb growth too. Most of my garden watchings have been through the window, and it was during one of those stints where I was also entertained by the small bird population who have found our pyracantha berries and the decaying crab apples, that I spotted what I thought might be a nest in one of our small trees.

Or maybe it was a leaf that had got stuck.

But it was there the next day too, and I ventured out to check (actually I might have been on my way to the dustbins, but you know multi-tasking and all that), and it was a nest. Not the greatest place to build one maybe, and I’m sure it’s vacant right now.

Who knows if it’ll have returning or new residents once the tree is in leaf again, but I’m happy they built it in the first place!