In my garden: February

I told you about the blue skies yesterday and today I'm showing you them. The buds on the pear tree almost look like lights waiting to glow, don't they?  While I let MOH have a go with our new leaf blower, I escaped and snapped a few pictures, and it's good to see the colour starting to reappear in the garden.

As well as the start of some Spring yellows, there's plenty of pink. These hellebores are just about visible from the house, and they've spread over the years. There was a red dot visible from the house that I was keen to investigate, and when I got close I realised it was either a very late or very early flowering geranium.  Clearly trying to steal the show from these hellebores, but its time will come.

At the very end of the garden, the camelia I bought back in 2015 has put on lots and is much bushier than it has been in previous years. There's also quite a few flower buds, so I'm hopeful there'll be a pop of white about as far away from the house as you can get. 

As is becoming tradition, I could resist a photo in my favourite corner, the sleepers have dried out a lot since I was last here, but it's still not the weather to sit down and enjoy the view. To the left, was ironically an ice plant, nestled in among the lavender.  I'm hoping it's feeling right at home, but I'll be happy for it to be slightly less cold right now please!

There was one discovery which you might have already seen, and that's my first daffodil, and there's plenty more to come. There was a suggestion on my Facebook page that I cut it and pop it in a vase before the snow comes. That did cross my mind, but I couldn't quite bring myself to cut it, although daffs in the house should be obligatory.  Once I start buying those bunches that haven't even thought about opening, they become kind of addictive and our dining table, and plenty of other surfaces, are rarely seen unadorned.

As I headed back down the garden the fatsia caught my eye, the flowers looked particularly sputnik-like, and as I got close up (as I do) I spotted the picture I really wanted to get.  I can't decided if they're dancing in the sun, or if the leaf on the left is tickling them, either way I love this photo!

But then again I love the fatsia and am a total convert. Every garden I have from now on will most definitely be having its own fatsia. 

I'm also hoping for some slightly warmer weather, as well as the obvious reasons, I also want to get started sowing some seeds, and I'm hoping that I won't need to head out into a snow-filled garden to clear snow off of the greenhouse roof, which has to be my least favourite gardening job! 

My garden in January

Or more accurately the title of this post could be, my garden on January 28 2018. It's been the only day this month I've been out into the garden, and even then it was to just check to make sure we hadn't suffered any storm damage in that windiest of days recently, and to take some pictures.

January's not my favourite month, but I'd spied the snowdrops from the conservatory window and it was them which drew me outside. As it turned out Sunday was mild and rather lovely, but I was happy just having a cursory check around.

And the snowdrops were definitely worth it.

About half way down the garden the pink flowers from the hostas drew me in with a welcome burst of colour.

At the back of the garden the strawberries have been busy, there's lots of runners - which means new plants - and the leaves are varying shades of green and yellow, while the runners are a vivid red.  I've got these earmarked for the allotment to edge that new path I put in last year.

And now the admission. I own a pair of crocs, in fact I'll call them communal crocs and they live by the back door and are handy for popping out into the garden, as demonstrated below. 

The sleepers are relatively dry considering the weather we've had. I suspect they may need treating later in the year but I'll give them plenty of chance to dry out first.  Under the cherry tree the dead flowers of the silver leafed sage like bush made me smile, the flowerheads reminded me of hydrangeas that I've seen this week in Greenwich Park, and both reminded me how much I like dead flowers as much as live ones!

Throughout the garden the lime green of the euphorbias were making themselves known.  Amongst the leaves. Our garden is full of them right now, the wind has thoughtfully blown them off the grass for us, but that means they're in the beds and in piles on the patio. That's a job for another day though, a warmer one I hope!

Another discovery was the amount of buds starting to appear on the lilac tree and camellia. Walking through Greenwich Park this week I've seen camellias starting to come out, but it seems that this year is no different for mine and it's remaining resolutely, and fashionably late. I think it'll be a good month yet before we see any flowers, although I'm very happy to be proven wrong.

I was worried how the hibiscus would cope with the colder weather, I wasn't quite expecting the cold that we've had though. The leaves have gone rather black and I didn't hold out much hope for it. But I checked it this weekend and it's still alive. The way to check plants is to make a small scrape with your fingernail. If under the scrape shows white or green then it's still alive, if it's brown then it's time to think about getting a new plant. 

The final photo is rom the ivy which is also showing signs of yellow, which you'll know is very welcome. In fact any type of colour, even the lushness from the ivy, is welcome at this time of year. Anything to combat the greyness of the skies, but from a quick walk around the garden it's obvious that spring is on its way, and I'm very grateful for that, aren't you?

In my garden, getting ready for Winter

As I said yesterday at the weekend we started to pack up the garden, and I took the opportunity to do some pruning and tidying too. I'd been meaning to cut out the agapanthus stems for a while, but I do like the look of them, and hadn't gotten around to it until now. Even then I was struck by how architectural they are, and instead of putting them in our green bin found some room in our garden compost for them along with the dried sweet pea heads.

It was only as I was cutting the agapanthus stems that I realised it had set seed. While that's good if you want to grow more plants, I don't expect it's so good for getting energy back into bulbs - hopefully we'll still get some flowers next year.  As they'd set seed I thought I might as well save them, or else there was little point right?

And I've got quite a few.  Looking online it says they're easy to grow from seed and if I'm lucky I could have a flowering plant in a couple of years. We'll see, but wouldn't it be good to have some of these at the allotment which I could use as cut flowers?

A week or so ago, our neighbour cut down the ivy which was growing across our conservatory roof, so in a reciprocal kind of neighbourly action I got out the step ladder and trimmed the chilean potato plant and jasmine back to the level of the very tall fence.  Four trugs later, and I was done, I wasn't expecting so much!

While MOH collected leaves in five black sacks - and there's more to come down - I busied myself collecting in the garden lights and remembering where I'd hung the garden ornaments. Anything to not collect leaves... 

Well, he does it so well...

It's amazing how much tidier the garden looks with the leaves collected and the grass cut - and you can see we've quite a few more leaves to come, so I'll be looking for other jobs to keep me busy when they're down.... Shhhh!

It really does feel like winter's on its way, the barbecue gas is away, the garden furniture is pretty much all covered up and the temperature's plummeting, the lowest so far in the greenhouse is 0.6 - brrrr!  

And now MOH tells me it's getting chillier this week, perhaps we should have moved the hibiscus after all...