February Ist in my Garden....

Lots of promise there both in flowers and seeds, Lincs. I'm like you and am resisting cutting back for a good while in order to encourage more insects. The weather could easily change again.

Sue, it's so good to see some colour in the garden, not just green and brown! In the first Snowdrop photo what is the fungi growing? Obviously not a problem or it would have been removed. The flower seed sack looks to be a fabulous gift.

Your garden seems more advanced than mine. I have however cut down (a bit) the dead stems on my Salvias, cause they are so untidy. I do hope they will regrow from lower down.

Your Christmas gift from your daughter is fab, Sue!! That's a little of colour for your garden. You'll be kept wonderfully busy!
Love your splash of spring colour! Hellebores look very pretty.

You have some lovely little treasures there! (I was thrilled to find a snowdrop today and there you are with heaps of them! I shall go and speak encouragingly to mine tomorrow.) 50 packets of seed!!! What are you going to do with all your spare time, lol... Lots of treats in store there. Can you improvise a sort of cold frame for the hardier ones? Your hellebores are lovely - nothing like them for cheering up a winter day. I did a small tour of ours this morning but not many are open yet.
My spellchecker didn't like hellebores and suggested boreholes instead!!!

Great to see some flowers in your garden, Lincs! I'm afraid thetwo very cold spells we had in December then again in January killed off most of my plants. I'm now waiting on the bulbs to start flowering! The Crocuses are up & in a couple of weeks they should be flowering Then there's the Daffs & hyacinths as well as some small Pansies. So in no time I'll be back to seeing flowers on the balcony again!

Your daughter gave you a very nice gift in the sack of 50 flowers! It'll keep you out of mischief this year!

Doesn't it make you feel better when you see the spring flowers emerging Sue!
I also have left some plants too, but unfortunately I have lost my Canary Isle foxgloves, so sent for more which are in the greenhouse.
I was surprised because they are quite hardy, but it was exceptionally cold this year.
I do love reading your blogs as you always make me smile!

Very nice Sue, and that's such a lovely gift. I hope your cacti and succulents are all right.

Thanks Ange, its turned very cold again now so not a good idea to even contemplate the tidying up or sowing any seeds, I shall be satisfied with my armchair gardening for now.....

Shirley I've added another photograph, its commonly known as bracket fungus, for goodness sake don't ask me its other name, there are thousands of different ones and I'm not that clever, LOL, its growing on the remains of our willow tree which as you know is now my stumpery, I did some research and it is poisonous but so are many things in a garden so I don't let it worry me, I like it, makes that area look even more natural....

Siris parts of the garden didn't seem to go to sleep, after all these years I now have a few flowers blooming in every month, albeit a bit sparse and spread around.... I cannot keep Salvias, I've tried many times which is sad as I love them, I did have one that thrived for over ten years, it was huge, a pretty pink/white flower and bloomed for a very long time during the summer months, sadly it died last year, I've searched for another but no success yet, I live in hope...

Hi Klahanie, we've been lucky so far, we had a big freeze a fortnight before xmas and then again two weeks ago, unlike other parts of the country no hail or snow, still plenty of time for that to happen so I'm not counting my chickens yet....I'm pleased you have signs of spring, always gives us gardeners a lift when the first flowers appear....

Thanks Kate, I loved my little sack and yes it will keep me busy, Juliet loves gardening as much as me so she is hoping I get great rewards, not daft is she, knows full well the results will be shared...

Stera its the affect of what I always call my garden of two halves, all of those clumps of snowdrops are down the bottom in the shady part, I split them whilst in the green as soon as the flowers begin to go to seed, I'm gradually working my way across the raised bed, there are no signs yet of the ones nearer the house, I should have lots more in the bed behind the fishpond, my crocus are the same,not even a glimmer, natrally there's hundreds of grape hyacinth..
.I'm so going to be busy with all those packets Stera, its a good job I like growing them, some can go straight into the earth when its time to sow so not as hard a task as it seems...
Spell checker can be amusing sometimes, I do get frustrated at times though when it argues with me, usually when it wants to use the american way of spelling our words....

David I remember you saying you'd lost a lot, sadly my geraniams and the lovely pelargonims have gone, I know you'll still have an attractive display on your balcony though and will be looking out for photo's......

Thanks Rose, I'm pleased I made you smile, you know I aim to please, lol...
A friend on FB sent me some foxglove seeds, they only went into the garden last year, bad timing and I didn't think they would survive, three did and the plants are quite big so I'm looking forwards to seeing flowers.
How are you both keeping now ??? hope the cold is not affecting your joints Rose.... xx

Hello Hywel, it is a lovely gift, not daft is she, knows I will share the results, I don't mind really as I do have more time and space than Juliet does...
I had a real panic at first Hywel as regards the succulents, in all these years of growing them it has never been as bad as we had, some looked terrible, I honestly thought I was going to lose them, soon as the xmas decorations were removed I brought as many of the individual pots and smaller trays into the house as I could find room for, made sure I had one of every one, I managed to erect extra insulation over some of the shelving inside the g'house by using the cover you get with those mini g'houses, I also had a couple of large polystyrene boxes and lids that our frozen raw dog food comes in so was able to use those as well, funnily enough the larger planters that stand on the floor coped better but I still surrounded those with coir matting and sacks that I keep for carting rubble away, sometimes it pays to be a hoarder of things Hywel, no room to work in said g'house at the moment, it looks a right hodgepodge of a mess but I have saved my succulents and cacti which is so much more important to me, some of them inside have recovered well and already producing flowers stems, a couple that had gone completely brown and mushy are beginning to shoot green stems from the base, I'm so pleased I didn't give up on those two, now I have to be careful I don't water them too soon, something that would not be needed normally at this time of the year, being inside a house with central heating is completely different, I check them daily and just use a spray across the pebbles if I think they need it, so far so good Hywel......

Sue, I love this fungus on the rotting stumps, looks great! Thanks for adding the extra photo ... :o)

I am fine thanks Sue! More good days than bad now!
I think the really cold weather we had made it worse!
Today has been much milder and have made a start on pruning the shrub roses.

It does look good Shirley, be even better when the ferns recover from winter, they do get a bit scruffy looking but I don't interfere until late spring...

That is good to hear Rose, you don't get away with an injury like that immediately, did you have to go for physiotherapy, do exercises and suchlike ?... I still have some roses to prune but I don't do that job when its windy, it was nice today but I never had time, spent hours faffing about, hubby was having problems with his computers so muggins had to be on hand to help, nightmare it was which is always the case, one small job turned into a big one as it always does , wires everywhere, sigh...

I didn't need physio Sue,but am doing Tai Chi as I have a small dvd player and do the exercises in the conservatory and try to do a short walk when I can, but what is great is that gardening is the best thing for me and hardly have any pain at all!
When the weather was bad and was sitting too much, then the pain comes back.
Thanks for asking!

That is good to hear Rose, I'm the same with my knees, they are terrible if I sit too long, like having continuous toothache and yet I can garden for hours, as long as I don't kneel, can't get back up again.....

Do you think we are getting old Sue! Haha!

Yes but not giving up Rose, what would we do with ourselves, besides family my garden is my pride and joy, even happy when I'm turning the compost....

Same here Sue, but unfortunately no compost bin!

Hope your garden is fairing this terrible VERY long winter ! Killed some of mine . My mum loves primulas , very spring feel they have.