The cutting garden in January

When I woke up this morning I looked out of the window and thought it had snowed during the night, yesterday afternoon the sky had looked like snow so I wasn’t surprised; but on going outside to check the greenhouse, I found that it wasn’t snow but hail!  With the low temperatures the hail hadn’t thawed but remained coating the beds and some of the plants, this thyme doesn’t look very happy.

Hail stones on Thyme

I have decided to report on the cuttings bed at least once a month; Julie at Peonies and Posies is posting about hers on the last Friday of each month, I will try to coincide my reports with hers in the hope that others too will join in and I will learn something from others who are far more experienced and I am!

Extending the Spring walk

Last year the spring walk gave me so much pleasure that I decided to extend it last autumn so that now it is at least half as long again as it was before.  Even more pleasure I hope!

Preserved Lemons

Susan Troccolo wrote about harvesting her lemons and I suggested she might like to try preserving them under salt.  To make this you need either your own lemons that you know haven’t been treated in any way or organic lemons that haven’t been waxed.

In a vase on Monday – Dried-up!

On Monday we are invited to find material for a vase from our own gardens or nearby by Cathy at Rambling in the garden.  This has become one of the most addictive memes maybe because it gives the contributor pleasure all week.

I am one of those who never wanted to pick flowers from the garden thereby depleting the borders, but I have always loved to have cut flowers in the house.  Creating a cuttings bed last year was a great beginning to not feel guilty about picking for the house.

GBFD A little magic with light

Welcome to Garden Bloggers’ Foliage Day, where we celebrate all kinds of foliage, green, evergreen, silver, gold or red.

As the forecast for today wasn’t great I decided to photograph the garden on Wednesday.  The first images were taken in the morning when there was a weak wintery sun.  I selected some parts of the garden that for some reason are rarely featured or are the background to some feature I wish to talk about.

Just as I was beginning to write I glanced out of the kitchen window and saw that the late afternoon sun was illuminating the garden.  I grabbed the camera, and managed to capture a few magic moments.

Wordless Wednesday – Spring and Summer?

Wet Crocus

Rain soaked Dianthus

Just a quick reminder that it is Garden Bloggers’ Foliage Day tomorrow, 22nd!

In a vase on Monday- Keeping it simple

Monday is here again and time to look for something, from the garden, to put in a vase to join with Cathy at Rambling in the garden.

Over the weekend I was sure that this would be the week when I should put together something with the seed heads I have collected over the last few weeks; but when I went into the greenhouse this morning to check on germination of the seeds sown last week I realised that I really needed to pick some of the Ami majus which is growing like crazy, despite having been cut back and is demanding water as if it were an aquatic plant!  As there are 24 9cm pots and I am going to need the pots and the space soon I am debating planting some out, what is there to lose?  If 8 die, I’ll still have too many and I have sown more seed too.

Perfume in the Winter Garden

Louise better known as Wellywoman wrote the other day about the perfumed plants in her winter garden and invited us to join with her and Sue at Backlane Notebook in recording each month what scented plants we enjoy in our gardens.

When I designed our first garden my husband said I could plant whatever I liked as long as it was scented; and although not every plant in my garden does have fragrance it is one of the major considerations when I am choosing new plants.

The Slope on Thursday – Frosty

We seem to be having alternate days of bright sunshine with low temperatures (dropping below zero degrees C at night) followed by milder days that are grey and damp and that actually feel colder than the ‘cold’ days!  Today is one of the sunny cold days, everything was white when I first looked out of the window but the sun rose quickly and melted much of the frost before I went outside to take some photographs.

In a vase on Monday and a book review

Monday is the day to join with Cathy at Rambling in the Garden and share a vase of flowers picked from our own gardens.  I use the word flowers loosely, in my Garden in January there are few flowers and those that are there are needed to add that extra spark to the borders.

In the cuttings bed the only plants remaining are the Antirrhinums and they are stubbornly refusing to actually open their buds, maybe if I picked them they would open.  So wandering around the garden I was beginning to feel a slight sense of panic, what could I use and not repeat the vase produced last week for which there would have been more material.