Green Girl Gardener

I was up early for a Saturday, to watch Andy Murray play in his first final since his return. Unfortunately that didn’t go my, or probably more accurately, his way, so I took myself off out to the garden in a mild huff to see if summer had arrived early. Spoiler alert: it hasn’t as demonstrated by my first photo – frost edged hellebore leaves. I tried to take the leylandii detritus off the right hand leaf for improved aesthetics, but it was frozen solid! The air must have been warming up slightly though because the whole garden sounded alive (which, of course it is) as the frost thawed and dripped through the trees in the gardens either side of ours.

Summer may still be some way off, but spring is definitely trying its hardest to out trump winter. In addition to the daffodil shoots that I shared a couple of weeks back, I noticed this morning that the bluebells have also made an appearance. I don’t know how they manage to push their way through the weed control under this gravel, but manage it they do, every year.

There are more signs of spring springing in my birthday planter in the form of my pink damask, again covered in frosty winter detritus. I don’t recall these shoots peeking through quite this early in previous years. I wonder if the mild weather over the festive period woke it up too early. According to BBC weather, there are likely to be a fair few more frosts for it to endure.

From my birthday planter I crunched over the grass to see what’s happening in the other big planter. I’ll tell you what’s happening! Squirrels (I assume) are digging in it and disrupting my careful planting. The oxalis that I bought from Osborne House looks to have gone but I’ll have to wait for warmer weather to properly assess the damage. Anyway, my sarcococca which was new last year and hadn’t really had time to establish is looking like it’s gearing up for great things. Apparently this smells amazing so I’m looking forward to its assault on my nostrils.

I’m finishing with a smattering of colour. My cowslip which was a present from the birds or the neighbours has a flower! This is one of my favourite plants and it was completely free. I just love the colour. it looks a bit raggedy, I don’t think it likes the cold. I completely understand!

Finally, I bring you one of my erysimums. It literally never stops flowering! It’s covered in flowers in the summer but it manages to have a couple of flowers all year round.

I hope everyone’s having a good start to 2022 and let’s hope we’re turning a covid corner, to coin a phrase. Right, I’m off to read the Propagator’s Six for this week before nipping round to Boris’ for a party. *

* only one of those is true, I don’t fancy going to a ‘work’ event and the wine’s on Fridays anyway (allegedly).