More small garden adventures
Categories: home
Date: 11 February 2012 18:06:43
Today I planted out the bulbs I bought earlier this week - I'd also bought lots of seeds, but they aren't to be sown till March/April so I shall have that joy in a few weeks. Today I planted purple freesias and mixed harlequins in several pots out the back, I put them in pots as they need to be lifted and stored somewhere dry over the winter so it's easier from pots than digging them up from the garden. 
The pots which don't have anything showing yet should start flowering from next month hopefully (I saw the first tulip shoot from the bulbs I planted in December so am optimistic, I should get at least one!). It was a bit drizzly today, as you can see from this skimmia.
In the front I planted out the bulbs which can be left to their own devices and don't need lifting. You can't see anything much from these pictures, but the areas of lighter brown soil mark where I've planted a couple of agapanthus 
(I had one in my London garden that I'd bought from the Eden Project in Cornwall, which never flowered once, so we'll see what happens with these ones), and along two sides of the border I planted 20 crocosmia (also a feature of the London garden as well as the Glasgow pots in the back court). I also finally planted the forget-me-nots I managed to retrieve from the Glasgow back court, hopefully they will thrive and spread as they are one of my favourite flowers.
The grass is a bit embarrassing, we've not done anything to it since moving here in November and it shows (in our 
defence it's never been dry enough to mow). I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it, I am tempted to widen out the beds a bit and get rid of at least some of the grass; I'm also thinking maybe about gravelling it and putting a couple of biggish shrubs in, but remembering my gravelling of the London garden that was a bigger job than I anticipated and I'm not sure I can face that this year! Whatever I do, I'll enjoy the garden though. It was SO nice getting all green-fingered again, I have missed it.
Although the pots and borders look like there's nothing much going on, I love the thought of all that activity and new growth and life going on under the surface, getting ready to burst into view when the time is right. And as usual I just got such a kick out of the home-made compost in the back garden, the thought of all that stuff breaking down to make nutrients and beautiful new soil is just such a wonderful thing, it never ceases to amaze me. This is why I love getting out into the garden, even though it's only a small one, it just reminds me of life and how good it is to be alive and that there's so much more going on than what we can see on the surface.