Finally

The sun is shining and we're not at work, have nowhere to be, have no-one to visit and no-one is visiting us...the garden is finally at the top of our to-do list!

We recently discovered that our garden is at 523 feet above sea level.  That's higher than Khufu's pyramid (the Great Pyramid of Giza) which stands at 481 ft.  It's higher than the Statue of Liberty which is just 305 ft from the ground to the tip of the torch, and higher than the Victoria Falls between Zambia and Zimbabwe which are 354 ft!

It is a fact that at the bottom of the drag to the village you can wear a t-shirt but by the time you reach the village you're donning a coat...and we're actually not quite at the top here!  It makes winter more interesting, that's for sure.  

Anyhow, I digress.  In the garden it's time to plant up and move and create.

Angel is intrigued but sensibly stays out of the way.

TMTC and Bumblebee are struggling to extricate rhododendron Christmas Cheer from its pot.

The soil needs to be scraped from the sides of the rootball to get it past the lip of the pot.

Teamwork!

It looks a good bit smaller now it's in the ground but it should soon grow into a large shrub.

Look at the beautiful colour of this bark.  It's the Tibetan cherry.

Also in the Yen Garden, the viburnum Dawn has been planted. It didn't flower this winter but that might have been due to the upheaval to make way for the hedge being replaced.

The viburnum Tinus pair on the other hand are flowering their socks off on the patio.

The three r. New Dawn survived winter in their pots and have now been replanted in Mugwort's Retreat.

The new outline has been marked ready for moving the brickwork edging.

At the top of the steps is a gentle honey scent coming from this Spireae japonica. It'll soon be smothered in tiny white flowers.

So many plants are coming into bud now, it's a job to keep up with what is new!  The trees all have varying degrees of leafing up.  This is the cherry blossom in the Yen. 

The clematis Shikoo winding it's way along the espallier apple tree already has flower buds!

And the tulips around the garden are waiting for their turn.

Elsewhere in the garden, I busied myself weeding the Long Border and the Patio Borders, moving crocuses from behind daylilies where they were hiding, planting snakeshead fritillaries, and dividing snowdrops whilst still "in the green" which means still having foliage.  I've also divided some native primroses and dwarf narcissi, and trimmed the Sarcococca confusa (Christmas Box) now it has finished flowering. 

The cheap hyacinths are such a welcome addition to the garden.  They add a wow factor, not just visually but they are extremely highly scented.  Their perfume wafts around the garden, reminding you of their presence like a spoilt child should your attention wander.

Since the blooms were beginning to flop due to the sheer weight of the flowerlets, I snipped off those most affected, added a few double daffs and a sprig or three lemon wallflowers for a posy inside.

The scented bouquet is so heady that it has to remain in the kitchen where it again stamps it's feet impatiently crying out to be noticed! 

Pure flower power!

Houseplants

Regular followers will know I have a bit of a thing about orchids.  I was given a few recently that had been nibbled by snails after removal men had put them in the garden of a friend's new home instead of inside.  I had washed the plants and the roots and repotted them in fresh orchid compost to eradicate any snail offspring that may have been hiding.

All but one responded well and produced flower spikes.  A couple of the spikes became spindly and had to be removed.  Each plant has produced a new leaf, and eventually as the lower leaves die, the nibbled leaves will be just a memory.

Last year, Bumblebee was gifted a couple of terrariums but it's taken us quite a while to source the substrate locally.  Yesterday we visited a garden centre in the suburbs on the opposite side of the city.  It was in a more affluent area, which was reflected in the prices, but we found what we needed.

Bumblebee and TMTC each planted a terrarium, with a layer of washed gravel, charcoal, a specialist compost and topped off with white gravel.

We had bought 3 tiny plants for each terrarium but one had to be thinned to fit, one had to be trimmed and one just couldn't fit and look nice so they've been potted on and the third plant was replaced with baby Groot. 

It's the first time we've tried this style of gardening so fingers crossed! 

Bargains!

Everyone loves a bargain.  Around this time last year I bought a delicious amount of dwarf narcissi from B&Q for around £1 for a pot of 3 bulbs.  Admittedly most of them were either already in flower or just going over but bulbs have this nifty little feature that once the leaves have been allowed to die back naturally in order to feed the bulb, every subsequent year they burst into flower again!

And boy have my daffs looked great so far!  I made sure to buy good amounts of a few varieties so they don't flower all at the same time, ensuring a longer display. 

Yesterday we returned to B&Q to repeat the process, this time we were aiming for crocuses.  the aim is to create pools of purple with a few white ones scattered throughout to lift it.  I've seen this effect recently on my drive home from work, beneath deciduous trees and shrubs beside the road.

At just 50p per pot of purple crocuses I snaffled all 11 pots!

There was a pack of 6 pots of white crocuses for £2, another 6 pack of yet-to-bloom snakeshead fritillary, again for £2 (these were originally £4 each).

Then, TMTC spotted these two bowls of hyacinths for just £2 each!  So all in all, that's 43 plants for £13.50!

The high temperatures of February are all but forgotten as winter has returned so today's pictures, courtesy of The Man That Can, are accompanied by a dusting of snow.

The sheer number of flowers and flower buds on the clematis Armandii is astonishing. It's a beautiful sight.

In the newly named "Mugwort's Retreat" (formerly the Pink Garden), all the bulbs are emerging.  There are narcissi and tulips all along the fence, joining the fresh red leaves of rosa Mum in a Million. 

A clump of pale blue iris has opened in the the corner of the patio border, joining the previously planted crocuses. 

All the hydrangeas are unfurling their leaves as March struggles to shake off winter's icy grasp.