Another day at work and so not in my Magic Garden.
Thursday
I was off work today so had a wee bit of time to spend in the Magic Garden and was delighted to find more snowdrops coming out. Some of these are from home and so extra special. I was also pleased to find that the nearly black hellebores are also coming out now but Ben was just interested in the catnip plant!
Wednesday
No opportunity today to play in the Magic Garden as I left for work in the dark at 7 and eventually got home at nearly 9 pm.
Tuesday
Its been a beautiful sunny day here so even Ben was persuaded out for a while to be in the sun and of course to inspect the various catnip plant sites. I suspect I will have to protect future plantings!
Monday
I went back to work today. Ben was less than impressed and I realised how dark it still is at either end of the day
Sunday
Its still very cold here with the Magic Garden frozen in places. I put the remainder of the daffodil bulbs into the troughs to treat as cut flowers if they grow & flower. The rudbeckia are potted up into wee pots and as soon as the temperature rises a little I will transfer them to the cold frame.
Saturday
Today has been a beautiful if very cold day. It was not a day for planting the remainder of the bulbs as the temperature remained below zero all day
The heuchera are providing colour in both front and back garden but several are looking very sad & I wonder if this is due to the cold. I suspect I will have to replace some of them.
Friday
Each time I decided to go outside today it started spitting with dampness and then sleet or rain. However I had received some free daffodil bulbs yesterday so I have started trying to randomly add more into the Magic Garden
Thursday
Its been cold here again today & it was sleeting this afternoon. Ben thought about going out but pigeon watching from just outside the door was far enough.
Wednesday
Its still sitting around freezing here and mostly rather grey. Ben has been not surprisingly less than keen on being out but did investigated the Magic Garden at dusk while I refilled the feeders and checked the water. The solar lights are working well at the moment and I hope to get some more up soon.
Tuesday
It remains very cold and although the snow is only a sprinkling it nevertheless less is not going anywhere.
The scent from the Christmas Box by the backdoor is wonderful but Ben was determinedly staying indoors today
Monday
It decided abruptly to snow this morning at 8 am - it only left a light covering but was quite effective. Ben checked it out & made sure he could locate the catnip and that the vegetables troughs were ok. The effect was quite pretty and the wee snowdrop from yesterday was in a little bit of snow today.
Sunday
Its been very windy here this weekend and I had to do a bit of restorative maintenance including repotting the wee Christmas tree which had been blown out of its pot and across the garden. I was pleased to find some more snowdrops.
Friday
Its chilly and windy here today. I did a little bit of garden maintenance and tied back the climbing roses pulling the shoots horizontal - I’ve been doing this a couple of years now and it does seem to make for more flowering. Ben attacked the back catnip patch before deciding to watch me from indoors
Thursday
Bit of a non-gardening day today. I wasn’t home early enough to catch the light and taking pictures of Ben in the dark didn’t work either!
Wednesday
Today was a chilly mix of sunshine and showers. Ben spent a few minutes out in the Magic Garden with me and supervised the planting of a Mahonia ‘soft caress’ into his catnip border at the back of the garden. I decided to add this plant some time ago having seen it recommended by Monty Don & knowing it should be shade tolerant but its taken me a while to find one
Tuesday
Its been wet and windy here today so it was a surprise to find a dascia still in flower. Otherwise I’ve been enjoying the seedbeds around the Magic Garden and Ben has been fairly determinedly an indoor cat
Monday
I’m still suffering from the effects of doing too much in the Magic Garden yesterday but I am pleased with the results, being able to see the globe artichokes. Today I added to the two dogwoods already at the back with a third, a yellow one this time, Cornus ‘Flaviramea’. The idea is to make a little bit of colour at the back of the garden to look down through to in winter. Thinking in a similar way I also planted a small witch hazel, Hamamellis Intermedia ‘Jelena’, in the space where I moved the apple tree out of. It should have enough space to prosper.
Sunday
I went for a rather dramatic change to the Magic Garden today having thought about it for around a year. I have removed the hazel arch. I haven’t dug out the stumps as my back is extremely sore after just the sawing down of the arch. I shall save that for an unspecified future date!
Saturday
Saturday started wet but Ben still wanted his breakfast outdoors on the step. There are promising signs of spring with the daffodils breaking through.
The other plants that are going to need some help are the catnips as Ben has had so much interest in the remaining ones.
The heuchera are not all standing up as well as I had hoped to the winter - I’m hoping a little bit of tidying in spring will sort the problems out.
The Full Moon last night was a bit hazy as the clouds were passing back and forth in front of it