JANUARY 1ST 2013 GARDEN SUNSHINE

First, let me take this opportunity of thanking everyone and anyone who reads my blog posts.  I wish you a Happy, Healthy, and Peaceful New Year and the best weather you can have for your own garden, if you have one.  For me, here on the Pennine Mountains of West Yorkshire, the year has started off well with blue sky, moderately cool temperature, and a fresh breeze.   Some of my beloved roses are still trying to bloom, although they should be dormant now and having a rest ready for next spring.  Arthur Bell is such a fabulous rose; not too tall, not too wide, quite compact.  I have a whole row of them at the front of my house and despite the awful wind that whips across from the moors, despite the lashing rain, they still thrive.  I took the picture of the rose below just 10 minutes ago.  I actually had to hold the bud to keep it still as the wind was lashing at it.  Although it is a little ragged, it's heartwarming to see it when it is only the first day of January 2013.  I cannot wait for spring to come.



Arthur Bell rose bud, 01 January 2013.

Arthur Bell, summer 2012

Early heralds of spring are the snowdrops and the crocuses.  I am happy to see that the bulbs in the trough under the living room window are coming through. I'd had a layer of small sandstone rocks laid across the compost simply to stop the local squirrels from digging up the bulbs.  I know it looks a bit unsightly but better unsightly than no bulbs to grow at all!   I am trying to remember what I planted in the trough.  Irises most definitely.  Crocuses, yes.  Some tulips.  Some little daffodils.  And some hyacinths.  The problem is that I changed my mind at the last minute.  Oh well, whatever they are, they will grow.  The snowdrops have definitely gone into a container in the back garden. 

It's amazing that after all the dreadful wind that has been threatening to knock down my 6ft fencing, the hanging baskets are still 'hanging in'.  Every time we get torrential rain, the gutters cannot cope with the rain running off the roof and cascades of water fill the baskets hanging on the wall below; and yet the bacopa survives and is even still flowering a little, while the lobelia that was also planted in the baskets is quite dead!  

Bacopa in hanging basket, 01 January 2013

I'm happy to see that the ivy is surviving on the back window ledge and looking extremely healthy.  Talk about value for money.  I bought the ivy as tiny plants a couple of years ago which I put into hanging baskets along with a load of other plants, and they survived in the baskets over winter when all the other plants had died.  Then, last spring, I dug them out of the hanging baskets and stuck them into pots in the garden.  They are perfect for propagating by layering if I decide I want more later on.  The thing is, they are such toughies and seem quite happy growing in the shadier areas of my garden, like the back window bottom.    I tend to use my ivy as trailers, it's easy to forget they are also climbers.

 

Another plant which is surviving, so far, is the fern: Dryopteris filix-mas 'Euxinensis'.  I admit I am a bit concerned about it because this is the first winter I have had it.  I have it in its own pot, within yet another pot, within yet another, and stood upon another pot so it is not at ground level.  I have it right next to the drain from the kitchen sink where it will occasionally get some heat from the hot water from the sink, and it is sheltered by the marble table that is protected by a waterproof cover. 

 



Dryopteris filix-mas 'Euxinensis'

I have noticed that the lawn seems to be growing.  The grass is looking green and lush.  It can stop that!  There is no chance that I will get the lawn mower (which is buried under a mountain of stuff) out of the shed and mow the lawn this side of spring.   I think I need a goat.