End of the Month View – January 2018

Its the end of January and for one reason and another I have hardly done any gardening this year. We were away for five weeks travelling in Laos in December which was great but while we were away lots of little admin jobs seem to stack up waiting to be done. I will do some travel blogs on Laos shortly now that I have got the list of jobs done.

Before we went away we had a concentrated tidy up of the garden. Thank goodness we did as the weather has not been great since we got back with snow, frosts and rain and even more rain! As a result there are lots of gardening jobs waiting to be done and February is going to be very busy!This was one of the rare bits of sunshine looking across the garden and I will be honest in this photo it looks almost identical to the November EoMV. But looking a little closer we can see many alliums and tulips already making considerable growth.Similarly in this bed but it also highlights the climbing roses that will need to be tamed in February. (I know it is a bit late but I am sure they will survive.)Elsewhere spring bulbs are starting to put on a show. This bed is largely snowdrops and aconites.  Here the snowdrops and aconites mingle with some really beautiful Cyclamens (variety not known) and an Iris Histrioides Katherine Hodgkin. This really is the essence of spring.This bed is more designed with Yew balls under planted with Hakonechloa macra. In spring clumps of snowdrops come up to extend the interest in the bed.Aconites and Iris Reticualata bring real colour to the spring beds.As I said we have had some very hard frosts, -7 c at times and the Euphorbia ‘Mellifera’, a plant that has marginal hardiness in this area has not enjoyed the cold. I think it will be OK but has certainly been knocked back a bit.

Other jobs completed have been the potting up of around 80 dahlia tubers. These had been drying out in our garage but have now been potted up in potting compost and are crowding into the green house. The above photograph is from 2017 but you get the idea. Around the end of February I will start watering them and with any luck they will produce great plants for planting out around the end of May when the frosts should have finished. In addition there has been more clearing some of the dried herbaceous plants from last year.

For those of you who remember this huge Crambe Cordifolia we said at the time that although it looks spectacular it was crowding everything out and we planned to move it. Well that was one of the jobs we have done so we can cross it off the list! The roots were over 60cm but I have replanted it elsewhere and I expect it to sulk for a year and then take off again.

The five new trees of Sorbus aucuparia ‘Autumn Spire’ also arrived and needed planting in the area behind the high wall. This almost completes the Design Challenge I mention last year and I will do a blog on this later in the year.

2018 Gardening Hours
Week beginning Jan 20th	Total 2018 to-date	Average per week
12	30	10

Given that last year we did on average 19 hours a week you can see we are well down on that!

Some of you will know that I took on the EoMV blog from Helen Johnstone last year. Helen is now back from her break from blogging and would like to take back the hosting of the EoMV which she had been doing since March 2009. So, if you would like to join in with the End of Month View please do. I suggest you add a link to your post in the comments below and also visit Helen and do the same there. Thank you for supporting the EoMV while I “baby sat” it and please come back to Glebe House Garden as often as you wish.

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