Late January

The evenings are slowly getting lighter, and things are beginning to grow. January has felt like a month of gloom interspersed with high winds but there has been rain, sleet, snow and the odd spot of sun too.

The snowdrops are beginning to form drifts and I am eagerly awaiting my hellebores, still in bud! I shouldn’t wish my time away but I can’t wait for the tulips either. Still, a gardener’s work is never finished and this is about what I am doing at the moment.

One of my main tasks over winter is pruning roses and that is ongoing. I can’t bring myself to cut off the few brave flowers but on the whole I am quite brutal and the more grumpy I am, the harder I chop!

With tulips starting to show, hurrah, I am finishing off tidying the borders and doing the final cutting back of perennials. It is really cheering to see shoots emerging I do hope that they don’t get caught by the frosts as it is still quite early.

Tulips

Poppies

At the pub, rather appropriately, I have cut back the grape vines. I don’t know a lot about it except that you do it in January so that the stems don’t bleed. I have trimmed back mid season before and the sap does rather gush out. They seem to grow like mad so I have pruned to give a nice structure on the wire supports.

Grape vines before pruning. Note fallen tree in between shepherd’s huts.

At home, progress on the actual garden is slow but I have been thumbing through the seed catalogues trying to make a decision as to what to grow this year.

You would think that with this many seeds already I would have enough but I’ve found lots more that just have to order! Lots of salad leaves that I pick everyday for my sandwiches, leeks for soup, beans, courgettes and some giant pumpkin seeds from Matthew Oliver at RHS Hyde Hall so fingers crossed! I have to think about what I want to eat, what will sell on my stall (to cover some of the growing costs), and filling those large veg plots at the pub. There will be lots of flowers too.

I can’t wait for some warm spring sunshine, but I have got plenty to do to get the garden ready before the big seed sowing frenzy begins.

January veg, my first cauliflower!

New year, same old garden.

A wander around my own garden in early January to see if I can find signs of life. It has been seriously neglected for the winter and I mean that genuinely, I haven’t been out there, except to do the chickens and hang washing for a couple of months. I  have actually been enjoying the standing stalks but it is probably time to do some cutting back and give the new growth a chance. Because if you look hard enough, things are moving!

Lots of work to do!

Cheered by the sight of some hellebore buds I have managed to get a bit done in the front garden as it’s more on view, including planting the tulip bulbs, very late, into pots. I also found the first aconite in bud.

Hellebore – nearly there!

 

I have some violas in pots which I can see from the window. I know that I’ve said it before but I always concentrate my early spring flowers where I will walk past or can enjoy them from inside, because I am not going to linger when it’s murky and 4°C like today. The hellebores are next to the drive and every day when I see them will bring a little bit of gladness to my soul.

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Violas #smallthings

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Deeper into the mess, I can find primroses, from a friends garden so extra important, and a perennial candytuft, Iberis Sempervirens. It is just coming into bud and will carry on flowering for at least the next 3 months. It likes a well drained, open spot but really doesn’t need much care at all, a good doer as they say.

 

Just to prove that I wasn’t totally idle in the autumn, here are my broad beans, surviving perfectly well in the garden with no protection. That mesh you can see is an old fire guard to keep the birds off when I first planted them out. I had quite some battle with mice to get these to grow, I had to weigh down the propagator lid and make sure that there were no gaps. Fortunately I have a lot of saved seed.

 

In the polytunnel I have salad leaves and some overwintering bits and pieces too messy to show! One of the door zips is broken so the protection is not quite as good as it could be but it’s slightly warmer that outside especially if the sun shines. Also what’s left of the second sowing of broad beans.

 

Unable to wait for the weather to get warmer, I have just sown some salad bowl lettuce in pots on the windowsill indoors. Something to enjoy while I look through the seed catalogues and plan this year’s excitement.