My Little Garden 20th Feb 2021

In the last seven days we seem to have gone from one extreme to another. From freezing temperatures last weekend, to some very welcome warm(ish) sunshine during the course of the week. And now the wind and rain have returned with a vengeance.

Despite a busy week, I have been able to spend a little time in the garden and I’m really happy that all the bulbs seem to be breaking through as they should be. But I’m going to start my ‘six things’ this week with a rather sorry sight.

1. Poorly hellebores

During…

My Little Garden 13th Feb 2021

It’s been a week of bright sunny days and freezing temperatures. No gardening has been done, but I have been catching with some clients about their plans for spring planting and it’s really good to have some outdoor work in prospect. It was also dry enough to take the youngest granddaughter to the park on Tuesday and to look for signs of spring in the nearby ‘secret garden’. …

My Little Garden 6th Feb 2021

On the first day of the new month the sun was shining, and I couldn’t resist a little trip out to photograph some signs of spring (or late winter to be more accurate). I ventured to the limit of what I feel I can call local, although that seems very much open to interpretation! The grove and woodland walk at Arley were very quiet and extremely muddy, but it was absolutely worth the effort to see the wonderful snowdrops and the hellebores. …

My Little Garden 30th January 2021

Another week has gone by and here we are at the end of January. The days are getting longer and I know I’m grasping at any little cause for optimism at the moment but there is much to look forward to in the garden over the coming weeks. To celebrate the impending arrival of February (any excuse), I had a little outing to a local garden centre on Friday and had a good mooch around the plants with virtually no other people about. I also did a little online shopping for some seeds. …

My Little Garden 23rd Jan 2021

The rain has been relentless ‘up north’ this week, and the risk of flooding has been a major worry for many people and an awful reality for some. On Wednesday evening, when there was talk of evacuating residents in nearby Didsbury, it began to snow. I think sleet might have been forecast, but this was proper snow that we rarely see in this part of Greater Manchester. And as I publish this blog on my return from an ‘early doors’ supermarket trip, it’s snowing again.

The garden is a bit of a mud bath…

My Little Garden 16th Jan 2021

If you ignore the weather, and in as far as anyone can have a good week in lockdown, this one hasn’t been too bad. I’ve been for a socially distanced walk with a friend I’ve not seen for ages, watched a GMG garden photography talk by Joe Wainwright (which was excellent)and spent my Sarah Raven £10 voucher (plus a teeny bit extra) on some dahlia tubers and a few other things. …

My Little Garden 9th Jan 2021

The first £1 bunch of daffodils of the season is a welcome sight on my kitchen windowsill. There’s so much joy in these flowers for minimal expense and they will be a weekly treat for as long as they are around.

I can’t wait to get out into the garden again, but the ground is hard and frozen so there’s very little I can do other than planning for spring and summer. And if business proves to be a little quiet for the next few weeks due to the current Covid situation, at least…

My Little Garden 2nd Jan 2021

Snow!

I confess to being a little bit giddy when I looked out of the window last Tuesday morning to find that we had a sprinkling of snow. The last time it snowed properly in our little sheltered corner of Greater Manchester I was on holiday in Tenerife and I’m pretty sure the time before that was ten years ago. I remember having to negotiate the roads home from the office in Wilmslow (the days when I had a real job) in my little two seater convertible which was most definitely not built for…