end of month view January

January has been wet, windy and cold, so not much gardening got done, the 4 days I did have in the garden though short days I feel I achieved something, in other words I can see the fruits of my labour,

the first 2 days of gardening weather were early in the month, on the first day my first task was to put in another raised bed, that’s 3 just one left, then I finished filling the second bed and filled this third bed with dead turfs put in up side down, the weather will break them down a bit, I took this photo last Saturday when we had a bit of sun,

in the afternoon that day I decided to move some plants, this was before the cold arrived, last autumn I moved the plants that were growing at the point of the triangular middle bed in the front garden and now I have finally got it planted as I have wanted to for 2-3 years now, the phormium was not doing well where it was, I’ve put dianthus Mrs Simpkins around it and edged the path with Artemisia Powis castle, I am hoping the fragrance from the artemisia will deter the rabbits from eating the dianthus, the shrub behind is Artemisia Frigida (I think) anyway it is an artemisia,

I did more work on another area and there is more work to do in this bed, I feel I’ve started though which is something,
the next day was good to garden and I decided that though I did not want to do it I really had to tackle the edge of the species rose border, it is along the drive at the side of the house with very heavy kerb stones, I managed to dig them out a couple of years after I moved in as they were crooked and weeds and grass were well imbedded around them, when I first came here you could not see the drive and kerb as it was totally covered with grass and weeds, I never got them back in and over the years many workmen who have parked on the drive have managed to push the kerbs back down, I started lifting them again when I decided to make the rose border, I had not got all the weeds and grass out so finishing the weeding and replacing the kerbs has to be done before planting, I forgot to take a before photo so this is after I had started, several kerbs are back in,

I got all the weeds and grass out but could not take a photo as the light was going, I looked forward to finishing the kerb stones the next day and then I could top up the soil and start planting, there are lots of plants in other areas that need moving or dividing, however the weather had other ideas because the next morning I woke to a heavy frost, I took a photo of how far I had got and had hoped to have more photos of progress but no, it’s been cold,

the other 2 days in the garden were too cold to move plants, last Saturday I removed turfs the digging kept me warm,  today was a bit warmer so I used it to do some clearing and weeding, first the rosa rugosa border which is looking bare and empty now though there are some bulb shoots just starting to come through, the foxgloves self seeded and need to be moved and I am going to move the golden feverfew as last year it smothered the Stachys officinalis Betony, I am amazed the Betony looks so green none of them have died back this winter it’s really weird they are a perennial behaving like an evergreen,

and the little bed in the front garden, the foliage on the Bergenia Elephants ears was very tatty and some blackened so I cut it back and the Kniphofia Red hot poker, I want to move around some plants like the foxgloves putting them further back but that has to wait for warmer weather,

it does feel good to have just got something done, I would like to mulch both these beds to help stop weeds growing but I do not have anything.

thanks to Helen for hosting the End of Month View meme I find it helpful and though sometimes I feel I’m going no where with the garden taking a critical look helps me see there is progress however small, if you would like to see more EoMV posts follow the link to Helen’s blog.

 

©Copyright 2013 Frances Caple. All rights reserved. Content created by Frances Caple for Island Threads.

About these ads