a Garden Centre lunch

Just to be clear from the start – this isn’t a post about food! It’s a post about Garden Centres, plants, and a lack of will power. On Wednesday I lunched with my two sisters. Mostly the food isn’t particularly brilliant, and the cakes are much too large, but we’re not really there for the food, we’re there to catch up with each other’s news and we know that if we want to chat for hours, no one will notice and no one will try to hint that it’s time to move on and free up the table.

But of course, there’s another reason why we go there, and eventually, someone will ask ‘anyone buying today’. The answer is usually, ‘no’. I don’t know why we bother asking because mostly we do…buy, that is. Buying or not, we always go for a look round…plant browsing is therapeutic…so we tell ourselves.

I needed grit and bird food. I definitely wasn’t buying plants, but once we’d left our table, the first stop, for all three of us, (who weren’t buying), was the outdoor plant space. I left my sisters looking for a rose called Lucky, took a trolley and added two bags of grit and some bird food.

I wasn’t there for plants, because I’m concentrating now on summer planting, and I’ll wait for those to come on display, or I’ll order online. That was until I saw Helleborus (HGC) ‘Merlin’. It was on offer, (which rather annoyed my sister), who had it in her garden but had bought it online at half the size for the full price of this one. Needless to say, it went through checkout and returned home with me.

I love the mix of pale cream with a hint of pink, that becomes a soft overall pink and finally deepens to rich dusky pink as the flower ages. The detail on the back of the flowers is equally beautiful.

Tulips

Excitement! The tulips are started to show. There’s about 15 pots of various varieties, including a few from last year, and not all above the soil yet, but I think one is enough to show because right now they all look much the same!

frozen pots

We had snow on Wednesday night, followed by some rain, and then it froze. By early morning it had gone from the grass, shrubs and most planting. But some remained in the pots around the garden, and I was out before breakfast, camera in hand, and wearing umpteen layers of clothing. It was slippy underfoot, but here’s a little visual summary of what’s springing into life at the end of February.

Tools on Standby

I’ve identified several days in the coming 10-day forecast where I think I can get some gardening done. Dry days – what a joy!  In preparation for the big event, I’ve been trying to give my grubby tools a bit of a clean. They also need to be sharpened, and the hand hoe in particular needs some strong elbow grease applied. That’s a job for husband.

I have arthritis in my hands and it can be pretty painful, especially in winter. After a shoulder & arm injury 18 months ago, I had real concerns that I wouldn’t be able to garden for quite some time. But then I saw a few online videos of gardeners using various tools and wondered if they would work for me. Standing, using full-length tools is too painful on my back – so I garden on my knees – I’ve always gardened like that. It can be a bit rough on the knees, but I enjoy being close to the plants. I bought the selection below and found that gardening was easier than it had been previously. Not only that, the exercise helped to heal the injury to my arm and shoulder. Long live gardening!

The Favourite Five

The razor hoe effortlessly cuts through the soil and lifts the weeds. The little hand rake (which is designed to pull leaves from beneath shrubs), then pulls the weeds toward me. The pointed trowel is great for digging smaller planting holes in my clay soil. The ratchet secateurs make it so much easier for me to prune. The snips are with me constantly, for deadheading, cutting fine stems, cutting flowers and more. They’re small, they suit my hand size. I do use other tools, but those five are my favourites and the most used.

Containers

I use this very tough little bag to hold my tools and bits n bobs that I need when I’m working on anything in the garden. As long as I remember to put the tool back in the bag when I’ve used it, it’s less likely to get lost in the garden.

I also use a Garden Caddy on wheels to move compost about, plus everything that’s heading for the compost bin. It’s the ideal size to fit a garden tub into, and I wheel it around with me – it’s much easier than carrying. The tub can then be lifted out and emptied. It works for me, and it’s a better size for our garden than a wheelbarrow.

I’d provide a photo – but right now, we’re having another day of heavy rain. I’m sure most of you will know what I’m talking about though.

snow

I doubt if we’re going to get any heavy falls of snow this winter (will I be wrong?) and since I’m going to be short of six this week, mainly because of the dreadful weather, I’m indulging in posting a few shots of the snow-covered garden from a previous year. If I want any more snow scenes, I’ll just have to wait now to see what next winter brings!

That’s my six for this week, I’m happy if you want to leave a comment, or join in with all of us worldwide who take part in Six on Saturday – click the link below to get more information.

ABOUT SIX ON SATURDAY

Six on Saturday is like a weekly journal. Take six photographs and post them to Twitter and/or your blog. You can get all the details from The Propagator who kindly set it all up. If you want to join in and see what everyone else is doing in the garden, just follow the link!

All photographs copyright of Catherine Wood unless otherwise stated.