JANUARY GARDEN DIARY


  • Work I've spent about 2 hours each week dealing with the compost bins, clearing leaves and planting - heathers and purple campanula to raised beds, a new Skimmia to the left herbaceous border by the bird bath, and a pink cyclamen with lovely silver leaves to the gravel bed in the courtyard under the red stems of the variegated dogwood. The seed potatoes are chitting in the back bedroom and flower and veg seeds have arrived.

  • Flowers Clumps of snowdrops are in flower in the courtyard outside the back door and at the bottom of the garden under the trees. It is certainly worth the effort of splitting them up each year. I haven't lost my Winter aconites as it keep them in a pot on the rockery and they look good with the early yellow and cream crocus. Growing the latter in low growing vegetation makes them stand out in the golden gravel there. I didn't expect to get flowers so soon on the tiny cyclamen seedlings given by a friend - they look lovely under the standard cotoneaster(bottom left border) with the nearby snowdrops. The witch hazel in the shed bed looks the best ever- still only about 3 metres but well worth the space for its sweet lemony smell and spider-like yellow flowers - I can't resist a sniff every time I go down to the shed! Cream primroses have been flowering for ages on the raised beds. The curious green flowers of Hellebores foetidus have unfurled - this is such a good plant with its deeply divided dark green leaves it is a shame to have such a name!

    Indoors I have had a super display of paperwhite narcissus - in fact I had to banish them to the unheated conservatory as the scent was so heady. The pot of iris reticulata looks good with th basket of tete a tete daffodils - the latter have got a bit leggy and had to be propped up.

  • Birds I get a lot of pleasure each week recording my garden birds for the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO). For details contact gbw@bto.org From my kitchen window I can see most of the garden. Sunflower seeds and peanuts are in containers suspended from the nearby apple tree and in the winter I put out scraps and apple cores. There is a ledge in the pond where the birds bathe and drink in addition to a separate bird bath.

    In addition to the 10 most frequently seen species this month I have recorded:-

    Coal tit - daily visiter

    Crow - rare

    Goldfinch - first time seen as a small flock - I love how they nod their heads.

    Jay

    Long-tailed tits - 2 sightings at beginning and end of month

    Magpies - continued to build nests at top of mature oaks but not used last year

    Song Thrush - one sighting

    Mistle Thrush - a handsome regular visiter especially for apples

    Woodpidgeons - too numerous for comfort with the kitchen garden!


  • Garden Forum Group This month it was my turn to host the members at my house. We all managed to squeeze into the conservatory for garden chat and refreshments after a quick tour of the garden. At this meeting we brainstormed ideas for future visits and various members took on information-finding responsibilities.

    The Bridgemere Nurseries Day visit once again stood up to it's good value and the sun shone as a bonus. The slide show of new additions to the nursery, tour round the glass houses, lunch, flower arranging demo were enjoyed. We even managed a sneak into the re-vamped garden kingdom, where they have felled a lot of trees to open up the entrance and redevelop the woodland area. Our happy group, arms full of garden purchases headed for home after a good day out.

    Garden Diary