The Colour of Winter is in the Imagination

January.  A month of plans. 

I really want to get out into the garden, but the earth is hard as stone, and I'm duty-bound to leave the garden asleep under it's blanket of grey foliage.  Oh but it does look a mess.  It looks like I have given up on the land.  I suppose I could say I've handed it over to nature, the cruel beast that she is. 
But method is in this madness.  After the losses of the previous winter, I made the conscious decision to leave much of the foliage on my plants to help with the insulation.  We shall see in the spring whether it was the right one.

I suppose I should see this quiet time as fortuitous really, as even if I could go out, I really shouldn't as I'm recuperating from a wee operation on my foot.  The Man that Can...can though!  And this morning as I blog, he is out trimming part of the conifer hedge back by the bird feeders.  If he doesn't do it now, we'll have to wait until after the summer to do it, to allow the breeding birds to feel secure.  It should really have been done earlier, so I hope it doesn't react badly...

This weekend is the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch.  Not that a big garden is required, you could do it in your local park.  All you need is a pen and a scrap of paper, and a free hour over 29/30th January. Note down all the birds seen in your patch in a single hour, and submit your results.  For more information and ID sheets, check out the RSPB website.  Hedging is now trimmed back, bird feeders topped up, and our ID sheet poised for action.  I've found 3pm is a good time for our feathered visitors.

I've played about with various seeds and feeders over the years. Our birds seems to prefer sunflower hearts, which are paricularly high in energy fats essential to help keep them warm. Other favourites are peanuts for the tits.  The robin, blackbird and dunnock like mealworms.   We do have a feeder with niger seeds for the finches, but I think they may have moved out of the area (do they migrate?). The starlings will eat absolutely anything, and will fight over fatballs, fat pellets and suet blocks. Yummy.
Oh and please don't forget water, especially this time of year. It freezes over very readily, and often needs breaking up and replacing a couple of times a day when the weather is this cold.

It's not all doom and gloom in the winter garden.  Things are beginning to stir.

My baskets of viola are looking a little sorry for themselves at the moment.  I'll pick over them, give them a good water, and once the weather improves, so will they.  They've done well to survive so far. I'm very proud of them.

Cheery yellows stand out in the poor winter light

Buds are appearing all along the stems of the Lonicera (honeysuckle). Maybe 2011 will be the year it begins to flower...

Ah, fresh shoots pushing through the frozen soil. What a welcome sight.  I believe these to be Galanthus (snowdrops).

Fat silky buds sprouting from Clematis Rhapsody. Nothing yet on the other side of the front door, but there's plenty of time yet.

A part of gardening for me that is still very much a learning curve is the care of houseplants.  I think this is more due to the fact that I do like a warm home.  Unfortunately central heating has a detrimental effect on many plants as it dries the air out.  Standing the pots on moist gravel does the trick with some, as does a little misting of the foliage.  You can't do this with 'hairy' leaved plants though, as they will rot. 

I've also discovered the leaves of Calathea'Triostar' (Prayer Plant) dislike having any moisture left on them, and should even a tiny drop of water is left on them, it will thank you by turning brown and crispy.  However, they do like high humidity... I tend to water weekly, and give each varigated leaf a quick wipe.  It's called prayer plant because as night falls, the leaves raise upwards 'in prayer' revealing stunning red/purple undersides. 

It's not the best specimen of plant, but it's a fickle character.  So far it's managed 2 years.

This cyclamen was a gift a couple of years ago from the school where I volunteered.  This will be the third time I've managed to get it to flower, but it will need repotting in the summer when it's dormant, as it's beginning to look a little thin on foliage.

The humble Spiderplant (chlorophytum comosum).  Probably the easiest of all houseplants, and perfect for beginners like myself.  I don't think it's particularly happy at the moment though, so I need to invest a little time and TLC.  I think it is probably a simple case of being in the wrong place, as it's sitting in a north-facing window.  It needs a bit of a prune too, and I'm going to pot up the babies dangling at the ends of the flower stems.

This is mother-in-law's orchid returned to me to try and repeat last year's success at coaxing it to flower again.

 And this is one I picked up in a bargain bin at the supermarket. Healthy enough, but it'll be a surprise what colour the flowers will be if I can jolly it along.

Another supermarket buy, this is Dracena Marginata (dragon tree) I've researched it a little, but I can't really tell you an awful lot about how it's getting on, because it was only purchased a couple of weeks ago.

This is my experiment - to get a Jasminum Polyanthum to re-flower.  It was bought last winter. In fact I've bought one every winter for many years, and thown them away when the plants collapses and dies.  So far, I've managed to cut it back hard last spring and train it to grow around the wire inserted in the pot.  There aren't any flower buds on it yet though... 

These are the two healthy looking Christmas Cacti being tended by The Toad. You may recall one had a beautiful pink bloom.

This one on the other hand doesn't seem to like it on the bathroom windowsil. Too cold judging by the red tinge to the leaves.  Ah well, all a learning curve.  I'll move it slightly.  Nice to see a second flush of flowers though, even if it is a garish colour.  I'd like a nice white one please!

Amaryillis bulbs. This top one is a nice fresh new one.  You may be able to make out a tiny mark where we decided to measure how much it grew in 24 hours - 15mm!!  Of course now it's far higher, and beginning to fatten up.

This one however is all leaf and no flower.  I did manage two years out of it, but I have a feeling I'm supposed to chill it for a few weeks before potting it back up.  Next year's trial maybe?

It's February in a matter of days.  Usually the coldest of our months...

2010 Review

The beginning of the year was harsh. With thick snow and ice, and the coldest winter for some 30 years - we managed some 8 inches of snow. Many of our less hardy plants were cruelly taken. That'll teach us to be flippant about our generally wet and mild winters.

The year ends having broken those records, with -19c locally, and in our own little patch of England, we had just over 18 inches of snow on the level, and something like 4 feet in drifts! 

The first snowfall of winter '10/11 was on 27th November. The earliest for 17 years in this area.

The councils had shipped in extra grit as a lesson learned from the beginning of the year, but grit doesn't work at temperatures under something like -5, and the deep snow falling meant it would be wasted. What we needed were snow ploughs!

Having said that, as I type this, while there is little evidence of the snow, we are left with a legacy of fog, burst pipes and some areas having no water supply at all.

The garden has taken a serious battering, and I fear that any plants with less than full Nordic hardiness that managed the previous winter, may well have succumbed to this one, but that will have to wait until spring, and that of course is next year!

Back to this year, and following the late start to Spring, the bulbs did really very well beginning with the snowdrops, which began flowering from 20th February. The first of the narcissi blooming on 16th March, a month later than the previous year.

April saw the start to the growing season proper. Being unusually warm and sunny, it made up for the long Winter. Everything seemed to come into flower at once. The bulbs, the polyanthus, dicentra, and who could forget the ever-lasting violas that survived through the winter?
The layered bulb containers worked really well, but they were quite an eyesore once all the bulbs had finished. I think more summer bulbs, and less spring bulbs to be noted.

There were a few changes in the garden's design too. With the hen house taking up their summer home in the shadier end of the garden. A new path laid, and the raised bed re-positioned.

We added one hen, and then promptly lost her and two others. We have only recently replaced these with another two hens, this time hybrids, but no eggs as yet. Lola is still with us, but she is also taking a break over winter from egg-laying. She's worked the hardest for us over 2010.

The fruit garden didn't do too well in 2010. We have many strawberry plants, but they didn't perform as well as hoped. We had a bit of a problem with Mrs Nutkin biting into almost every raspberry too, so may have to net these next year.

I grew dahlia's from seed, which worked remarkably well. So well, they had to be found homes. They performed well all summer, and well into the autumn.

Slugs and snails were yet again a major pest in the garden, despite the hens. The egg shells weren't as effective as I'd hoped, but I will persist.

The digitallis performed magnificently for many months, and I've spread the seed, and let some self-sow. I do hope the young plants make it over the winter.

I failed miserably again with carrots. They were tiny spindly little things, that were barely useable whole in stir-fries. Despite the good start with the onions, something came along and devoured all of the tops off each bulb, and they only grew to the size of a ping-pong ball.  The potatoes weren't quite as plentiful as the preious year, but they were just as delicious. Oh and we failed yet again with the butternut squash.  The radishes did well, but the beetroot could have done better. We had an impressive harvest of courgettes and french beans, many of which were given away.

In the greenhouse, the Morning Glory was stunning, a solitary cucumber appeared, the cuttings were inspiring, and the lettuce almost bolted.

I think of all the vegetables, the best performace was that of the sweetcorn. We had so many cobs that we had to give away a lot, and the hens enjoyed the last of the harvest.


The flowers, oh the flowers, where to begin!

The clematis 'Rhapsody' was short of flowers this year, despite flowering twice. I'm not sure whether it was resting, or it was because of the previous bad winter. 2011 will be sure to enlighten us.

I was so pleased with my first attempts at growing Freesias and watching the steel-grey stems of the Eryngium turn vivid blue.

We had impressive displays of Sweetpeas, Sweet Williams, Poppies, Petunias and Pelargoniums, not to mention my favourites, the Lillies (the white ones began flowering on 24th June). However, I think 2010 was the year of the Fuschia.  They outshone everything in the garden with their different colours, shapes and varieties!

I'll leave you with Toad's very first success with cuttings. My own Christmas Cactus had finished flowering by the big day, but Toad's waited for it's moment.

All the very best of British for 2011!

Clearing isn't fun

Yes the snow is pretty, but not terribly practical when trying to see to one's hens. Behind this lot is the hen house! More than 18 inches overnight!

Our ladies wondering what all the fuss is about. They just want to come out and play in it.

Anyone got a 4x4?

Our car's going nowhere

Fuschia leaf suspended in an icicle.

The Bumblebee and I managed to shift some of the snow to the side of the house.

It'll take a while for this lot to disappear. The sun barely touches any part of the front garden in the winter.

Keep warm and safe x

More Snow!

The snow didn't ease throughout yesterday and overnight, and this morning, we were snowed in.

Scenes from the bedroom, the only blip in the snow being The Man That Can's footprints to the hen house, soon filled in as the weather closes in again.

I knew we'd have a problem with snow and our new gates.

The snow reaches the top of my wellies. Watch that last step...it's a little deeper than you might have imagined. Thankfully the car broke my fall!

18+ inches! that's another 15 inches in 24 hours!!

I can't safely reach this part of the garden, but I guestimate that that snowdrift is about 4 feet in depth.

My poor hanging baskets before sweeping off the snow

Icicles hanging from the nest box, snuggled under a foot or so of the white stuff.

And still it snows. thick and fast. The thermometer is telling me it's       -10c. Records tell me this is the earliest snowfall for 17 years. I wonder if this winter will go down on records for anything else. Coldest since... Longest since... Deepest... you get the picture.

If ever I yearned for the winters of my childhood, I think this will have at least matched it already, and it's only 1st December!

Stay warm. Stay Safe x

Winter

I'm marking the date. 27th November 2010. First snowfall of the winter.

3.5 inches recorded on 30th November

The snow didn't even think about stopping.

On the Move

Winter is fast approaching. We need to move Lola and her home up to the patio and the relative warmth and shelter of the house wall.  The home-moving part was simple. Convincing Lola she'll be better off up the top of the garden is quite another!

Now that she has accepted it, we can let her new friends join her in her winter home. She soon told them who was boss, despite being a fair bit smaller!

I'll get some better pictures once they've settled and come out to play.

The Black Rock (black and gold) is called Fawkes. The Sussex Star (white and black) is called Hedwig, of course!