While I have been away .....

When I saw the date of my last diary entry, I couldn’t quite believe how long it is since I checked in.  We spent a week in Northern Ireland in February, visiting our family and we have been very busy doing things at home too - but I cannot exactly recall what we have achieved!  It is one of life's conundrums - how can we spend so much time, doing nothing in particular?

Anyway, this morning, camera in hand I had a good look round the plot.  There is plenty of colour with masses of snowdrops and crocuses in fine fettle.  The clump of snowdrops embedded in the gravel driveway is my favourite.  It must be the most inhospitable place for a snowdrop to set up home but this family looks very happy.  

The hellebores are just making their entrance and lots of shrubs and trees are budding.  The winter flowering heathers still look good and the yellow jasmine brightens up the terrace. It is a cold, bright day but we have had a lot of rain and there are boggy areas scattered around the garden. All in all though, the garden is promising abundance and we are looking forward to the new season.

Doc is in the early stages of The Latest Project which involves building a retaining wall of sleepers in front of one of the steep banks in the lawned area of the garden and levelling some ground ready for us to take delivery of a smart new Garden Room.  Now that the cheques have been written (!), we feel very excited about it. It will be fully winterised with double glazing and a heater so we will be able to enjoy that part of the garden and the lovely views, all year round.  For a long time, the formal lawned garden has been not much more than a green corridor on the way to the productive vegetable garden and greenhouse further down the garden.  However, there is huge potential for us to engage with all of the garden, not just part of it and the Garden Room is going to be a great focal point.  I am not going to feel guilty taking my Kindle down to the den for the afternoon......

Doc also plans to restore the border in front of the Garden Room which will involve cutting back some enormous rhododendrons, azaleas and trees. If that isn’t enough he intends to build some steps back up the bank, behind the Garden Room and some paving and a pergola at the bottom of the steps along the terrace.  It is an ambitious undertaking but he has done his research. He found the design of the steps on an Americal University website of all places!

We have already restored the border on the opposite boundary of the lawn and the mature shrubs which Doc virtually massacred (!) during the last couple of years, are now re-energised. The Camelia is in flower and we realise just how much we have missed it.  Sometimes you have to be brave.  It was tired and overgrown and sacrificing a year or two of blooms is a small price to pay for keeping a mature specimen healthy.

I love the magnolia at this time of year, almost as much as when it is in flower in a few weeks time.  The little silvery-grey, fury buds are fury to touch and are poised, ready to burst.  Magnolia trees just need enough space to spread and then need little more than a quick snip to tidy them up now and then. Ours is a small variety - Stellata - and it has star-shaped white flowers and is slow growing. Ours was planted 15 years ago and it is a comfortable 10 feet high with a lovely, natural shape.   

The extended day length and gradually increasing levels of sunlight mean that the greenhouse has woken up from its dormancy.  The pelargoniums, chrysanthemums and tarragon plants have perked up and are putting out fresh growth.  The fuchsias are slower to react but this is usual for them and I expect to see new buds in a few weeks time.  I must ask Doc to collect some compost so we can give them a fresh start for spring.

I have been sowing seeds and there are several trays with baby plants which I enjoy nurturing every day.  I could have bought plug plants and although they save time, I prefer watching the magic happen before my eyes and sowing seed means I have a greater choice of varieties.  Watch this space to see if my cut flowers are successful!  I have never grown them, en masse, before so it is just the sort of challenge I am looking for.  I regret that I cannot help Doc with the heavy work but hopefully, there will be something nice for him to look out when he puts down his tools and takes a break.

The tomatoes and chillies are up and about and my first lettuces have come up without a hitch.  We are not growing quite so much veg this year but we hope the garden will be filled with colour when the Irish contingent come for a holiday in the summer.  It has crossed our minds that we need to invest in some outdoor games to keep an almost 3 year old amused.  I already have a child-sized set of gardening tools and a mini watering can.  I somehow think that the strawberry plants will receive a lot of attention!

The red fresh growth of this euphorbia brightens a dull corner