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| Hyacinths poking through the ground |
Happy New Year!
As I am now in the over 70 age bracket I am waiting anxiously to be offered one of the Covid 19 vaccines. Friends and neighbours younger than I am have already had their first dose so anxious is the word.
Meanwhile I'm looking out onto my frosty garden and watching the two very healthy-looking foxes who consider the garden to be part of their domain as they paw into the ground for worms, trot along the top of the trellis and bask in the winter sun on top of the shed.
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| Bushy tails looking for worms |
Normally I don't go into the garden much in winter - the ground is too soggy, the mud too sticky - little pellets of dried mud from the non-slip soles of my boots get scattered all around the flat. But on a recent visit to the compost heap I noticed a big fat purple hellebore bud so I took my secateurs and cut back all the old hellebore leaves I could and revealed lots of buds and even flowers.
The earliest here is a double white one I bought at Ashwood Nurseries near Wolverhampton about ten years ago and that is already half way out.
Having found the hellebores, I began looking for signs of snowdrops. On the whole snowdrops have difficulty with this garden. They don't like the heavy clay but now that I've raised the beds by about 6in. I have established two or three colonies. I always expect to find them among the first to be poking through the soil, but they are still snuggling under it. There are some really strong 'King Alfred' daffodil leaves behind the yew hedge and shoots of a white-and-pink short-trumpeted variety elsewhere.
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| Strong 'King Alfred' daffodil shoots |
Spanish bluebells are beginning to elbow their way above ground all over the garden and there are some strong, pale hyacinth shoots along the right hand wall.
I love to find the beginnings of next season's sedums coming up under last year's old stems, which I left not just for the birds, but because I love they way the flowers darken and change as they grow old.
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| First silvery sedum leaves just showing |
The furry buds on the Magnolia stellata are well formed already - I must remember to order some ericaceous compost before there's a rush on it in the spring.
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| Robin seen through the magnolia |
While I was about it, I cut the autumn raspberries down to the ground and made a note to mulch them when I uncover the garden compost in February. My fingers were freezing by this time, so I came indoors.
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