Happy new year ... on the 14th January!

Thanks for sharing your winter garden with us Shirley … much less dismal than mine! Glad you’re feeling well enough to some gardening, and to take photos too 🙂.

Lovely blog! I hope you get over your problems quickly & can enjoy the early days of spring sowing some seeds for the garden during the summer.

Happy new year to you :-) Hardly been in garden myself , although spotted hellebore coming up didn't know I had. My Malus fruits dropped by November not even blackbirds . My primulas get eaten :( Not seen any signs of bulbs as yet . Good promising garden for you here

Sheila, this morning saw a frost for us, but the sun is shining now so it should thaw soon. When I do get around to some more gardening I must thin out the masses of Forget-me-nots ... definitely not for a couple of weeks though.

David, this year the sowing of seeds may give way to plug plants being grown on in the greenhouse ... :o)

Klahanie, this time of year I find it difficult to post much on GoY but things will improve as the Spring flowers begin to bloom. I hope the freezing weather doesn't cause much damage to your plants.

Hi Paul, happy new year to you too. Have you had much flooding in your part of the country? I have a relative in Nottinghamshire where it has been awful ... :o(

Shirley hope the New Year will be a good one for you after a rather shaky start. Take care and make the most of the calm, sunny days.
We too were out in the garden yesterday and it was lovely to feel I was doing something useful out there again!!
We have lost a Daphne which I really loved so I must replace it but it can go in a large pot this time!
Very best wishes for 2024.

yes Midlands has been hit badly, we are lucky as we live on a hill so never get floods here . back garden gets a good soak though

Loved your blog Shirley! Very cold here too and can't wait for the warmer weather.
My crab apple is the same as yours as I only have one resident blackbird.
Best wishes to you and hope it is a healthy and good gardening year for you! xx

Nice to hear about your garden Shirley. I hope you find a suitable summerhouse.

Chris, minus five here today and we have had the front porch door open for hoses as a carpet and upholstery cleaned today. If I had known how cold it was going to be I would have booked it for another day! I hope you find a lovely Daphne soon.

Paul, the advantage of living on a hill .. stay safe and warm.

Thanks Rose, by the way I did buy some Rootgrow to use when I re-site a Rose, no hope of doing that until it warms up a bit though. The Blackbirds have deserted us since the neighbours chopped the huge Bay tree where the birds used to nest ... :o(

Hywel, we looked at a couple of Summerhouses yesterday and think we have found a good one. The company deliver and erect the building for a reasonable cost ... watch this space!

Glad to hear you're on the up, Shirley. We have very few blackbirds, but plenty of other contenders for the feeders. The crows line up in next door's cherry tree for our scraps as soon as it gets light. And the fat balls get a real hammering by one and all.
I'm impressed with your care in the g'house. I ran in this morning, splashed some water about in ours and ran straight out again without a backward glance. Too cold to deal with hellebore leaves too! I simply haven't woken up to the joys of the garden yet and wonder when/if I will.... I look forward to seeing your new summerhouse in situ.

Ooo new summerhouse, now that's truly something to look forward to!
My green house is a desert compared with yours, Shirley. When I bought the house a bramley apple tree grew so close to the greenhouse that, no matter how hard I tried to keep it pruned back, it would extend branches over the greenhouse roof each year and drop apples through the glass. So I tried replacing the glass with polycarbonate sheeting, with little success. Eventually I had the bramley removed (I replaced it with a sapling which i am training to grow against the garage wall) but the wind still manages to lift the polycarb sheets off the roof, if I am lucky they land in the garden and i try refitting them with even more glazing clips! At the moment it needs just one panel refitting and is bereft of plants. However I found today that B&Q have seed potatoes in stock so I shall refit the glazing and plant up some bags of first earlies in there. I intend to sow some trays of seeds in there too when the temperature is more favourable.

Ange, I was well wrapped up against the cold that day and I know from past experience that slugs and snails love being in the greenhouse, grr!
I stopped putting fat balls out when a Fox was coming in to the garden at night as he was seen nibbling at the fallen bits on the ground. The only food for our garden birds now are Sunflower Hearts which are now quite expensive. The Goldfinches, Robins and Sparrows enjoy them, and we love to watch them!

Xela, our previous Summerhouse was damaged in a storm late last year (see my blog about it) and was demolished, leaving us with an unattractive view of the back of a neighbour's garage and a small shed! We decided to replace it as it served us well over the years, good place to relax with a cuppa and a crossword.

I have a small greenhouse with polycarb panels, one blew out a couple of weeks ago, found it in neighbour's garden and OH popped it back in place. I used to grow tomatoes in mine, grow seeds and pot up cuttings but this year it will just be for bulbs, cuttings and plug plants to be grown on.

Good luck with the seed potatoes.