What a difference a few weeks make! The appearance of snowdrops, crocuses and daffodils and the hint of the garden beginning to reawaken has really helped to lift spirits. A few dry days have made a world of difference – the wet weather has meant we haven’t been able to do much weeding, and the winter pruning has been a bit sporadic.
We’ve spent a lot of time on tidying up the trees, as a few of them were damaged by the snow at the beginning of January. The amount of snow that fell in a short space of time meant that some of the smaller trees with thick canopies ended up holding too much weight and either twisted or simply snapped. This has meant we have had a lot of wood to dispose of, but we have tried to use as much as we can in an environmentally friendly manner. The volunteers have built new dead hedges as well as refreshed the foliage on existing fences, which will provide homes and green corridors for insects and small creatures.
The volunteers also logged the edges of the paths in the winter walk, and refreshed the woodchip, which has provided a lovely frame for the plants that seem to come out of nowhere at this time of year; hellebores, winter aconite and snowdrops in profusion.
With the advent of a few days without rain, we’ve also been able to weed all our vegetable beds and place a good layer of our own compost as a mulch. The only downside is now having to wait until we are as certain as we can be that the last frost has passed… I don’t think we’re quite there yet, but we have lots of lovely plants ready to go on sale when we are sure! Clary sage, poppies, poached egg plant, cornflowers, nigella, wormwood, wallflowers – lots of lovely colourful blooms that will also make your garden pollinator-friendly!
That said, the wet days when we were forced indoors haven’t been a bad thing, as we took the opportunity to get quite a few of our seeds in. Most of the brassicas have been sown [some have already been pricked out and are happily growing along in their own pots], the tomatoes and chillis are a few inches high, and the potatoes are chitting wherever we can find a space. It’s all feeling a bit more like gardening! New things we’re looking forward to planting this year include purple potatoes, Hamburg Root Parsley [you can eat both the leaves and the roots], Munich Beer radishes and Manglewurzels. Fingers crossed that we get a good harvest!
Looking forward, we’ve just taken delivery of insect-friendly hedge plants to help us create a new peaceful seating area, and we will have a lot of bedding plants coming in this month to grow on ready for the Spring event. Lots to look forward to, we hope to see you in the gardens soon.