Happy New Year

January 2020

A New Year and already the days are getting longer, no longer dark and gloomy at 3pm but actual daylight until around 4.30pm.   There is hope that before long the garden will start to look green and vibrant again, no longer a muddy mess.  What a treat to hear the birds singing again and to see them at the bird feeders and flitting along the hedgerow.

It’s good to take a walk around the garden each day to see what is happening.   Plenty of buds swelling on trees and shrubs and already the first snowdrops in flower.    I can keep pace with the daily changes at the moment but before too long everything will speed up and I will have to make sure I don’t miss anything growing.    Most years the first daffodils to flower are a clump in the orchard under a willow tree,  these are growing well with lovely plump buds.   Other daffodils in the spring borders are also growing well with buds showing together with cyclamen coum and the first hellebores.    A temporary protective netting fence has been put up around the spring area of the garden to stop our over enthusiastic dogs scattering flower heads as they carry out their own inspection of the garden.   This normally works well, and although they have a tendency to push underneath it at least they are slowed down a little.

I enjoy working in the garden at this time of year almost more than in the heat of summer.   I can set myself a task and complete it without feeling that I have to weed and tidy the whole garden in one day.    I like to go outside with a particular area in mind to weed, maybe only a small area, but actually finish it and feel that something has been accomplished.    I have so far cut down all the dead growth on perennials in the Autumn border, the long border in the back garden and three beds behind the greenhouse.   Next task is to weed each one and then spread a mulch of garden compost.  I’ve spread shredded plant stems over the Autumn border to try and keep weeds at bay and so far one bed by the greenhouse has had its mulch of compost.

The vegetable garden has its raised beds covered with weed suppressing fabric over winter which not only helps to keep weeds down but also warms the soil.   The first crop has been planted this week – several rows of garlic, planted on an unseasonably warm, sunny day.