Category: Winter

Spring Countdown

Published on by Catherine36 Comments

If you follow the Meteorological calendar, you will only have 20 sleeps until Spring arrives – how exciting is that! But if you prefer the Astronomical calendar, you’ll have longer to wait. Your Spring will start on the 20th of March, mine on the 1st day of March. Come rain, hail or shine – that’s the day my Spring begins. I’m very, very impatient when it comes to leaving winter behind – I’m a meteorological kind of person. 20 sleeps until Spring! Happy days!

Six on Saturday

New Plants. Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Amber Jubilee’. I’m hoping this plant lives up to its glowing description that declares, “in Spring, the leaves will be a rich salmon-orange that mature to green”. There’s a rough idea rattling about in my head about where to place it, but all I hope is that it will add colour where it’s needed in early spring.

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Snowdrops and Hellebores

Published on by Catherine22 Comments

Six on Saturday

When Storm Jocelyn eased off mid-week I was quick to get into the garden to pull two of my garden chairs out of the shrubs (again) and try to capture a few photographs of snowdrops. The winds had eased, but they were still strong and blustery. I almost gave up. However, the forecast stated with great authority that the rain was only taking a few hours off, and we’d still have blustery, wet conditions for quite some time. It seemed like one of those now-or-never moments.

Snowdrops. I took multiple shots of this little clump of snowdrops in the garden, but not too many of them were successful enough to use. Light was at a premium, and achieving a fast enough shutter speed for wind conditions was difficult. Single result below.

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Rest and Renew

Published on by Catherine29 Comments

Six on Saturday

Our gardens, whether large or small, welcome winter as a season of rest and renewal. It’s a time when we can reflect on the plants we have and ponder new additions that will fill the beds and borders with colour and vitality.

We snuggle up in the warmth of our homes, browsing through plant & seed catalogues and making lists, often impractical because of their length and cost. But still, we optimistically plod onward, full of hopes of sunny, warm spring days when the garden bursts into new life.

At a glance, my garden feels and looks desolate, but everywhere, shoots are pushing through the ground, shrubs are sporting new buds and hellebores are beginning to flower. Spring will come. Winter is a time of hope.

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New Year’s Day

Published on by Catherine29 Comments

Six on Saturday

New Year’s Day found me in the greenhouse potting on Erysimums, or wallflowers as otherwise known, that I bought last October as ‘jumbo’ seedlings. They’ve been sitting outside in 10cm pots since then, but by December, their roots were poking through the bottoms. I still hadn’t found a spot for them in the garden, so repotting them was at the top of my to-do list for the new year.

There are four plants each of ‘Fire King, ‘Ruby Gem’ and ‘Vulcan’. It didn’t take too long and I was pleased with my New Year’s Day achievement. With plenty of added drainage in the pots, they were shifted back outside before they got too comfy in the dry greenhouse.

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Time

Published on by Catherine15 Comments

A long time ago, when we first started working on this garden, I went to our local nursery to buy a conifer. They were all the rage back then. I found one that caught my eye, and the elderly gentleman next to me glanced at the plant in my hands and said, “That plant grows very, very, slowly.” He pointed to a few others that he thought would be a better purchase. He was trying to tell me to put it back and choose a faster-growing plant. I knew he was being kind, and his knowledge of plants had to be much greater than mine. I knew nothing. But I was drawn to this tiny plant, so I thanked him, went to the till, paid and returned home to plant it.

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