The Beautiful Calm

There’s something strangely beautiful about this time of year.

I love the calm that follows the hustle and bustle of the festive season. There’s something nice about ” getting back to normal” and that’s finding the time again for other things.

Now I must admit that our stove is more appealing just now than the great outdoors, with this spell of cold, damp, dreary weather, but it’s well worth making the effort. After all the Christmas tree had to be disposed of.

Five minutes with the secateurs reduced the tree to the trunk and the base. Final result is another log to edge my woodland bed and a bit more firewood for aforementioned stove. ( The branches were recycled courtesy of our green recycling bin.)

So now with that job ticked off my “getting back to normal” to-do list, I had my stroll down the long garden path!

It was all looking decidedly damp and disheveled. The winter weather has taken its toll – flattened grasses and a worryingly, sorry-looking Helwingia shrub, which had been doing so well.

But looking past these set backs, all the wonderful signs of regrowth are starting to appear.

The first crocus shoots poking through….

….and the rhubarb (Oops! I need to weed!)…

And of course, the snowdrops nestling alongside an unfurling hellebore – “Anna’s Red” – under the coloured dogwood stems.

And with all the delight of the gorgeous fragrances wafting out from the Lonicera fragrantissima and Chimonanthus praecox (among several others) shown at the top, it was, in all, a most rewarding stroll.

That’s the strange beauty of this time of year.

It’s hard to hibernate when the garden is waking up! 😀

Welcoming Spring

Sunday morning saw a short glimpse of spring. We realised it wasn’t to last. By afternoon the wind and rain was due to return, so we took the chance to grab a couple of hours to make inroads into all the garden tasks lined up for us.(And anyway, come the afternoon, the next round of rugby matches would be calling us indoors!).

The job today was to remove a large branch of next door’s lilac tree, (with permission, of course!) that was constantly bashing me in the bonce! Not a job for secateurs, but for a chain saw.

I should have taken a “before” picture, but Mr. Chef was well underway by the time I thought about it. That was the easy bit! Now it had to be disposed of!

But at least now the woodpile is starting to take shape.

It wasn’t all work. The sun also brought out a few gems to enjoy. The Woodland Garden, where we were working away, was starting to look good, with all the tiny jewel-like cyclamens, dotted around under the newly opening dusky pink, nodding heads of the Hellebores.

Elsewhere, in the Cottage Garden, it was the crocuses that were making the big impact. The sun was bringing them on and they were starting to open up and show us their faces.

They were planted when we first started planting up the Scented Shrub Border, as an understorey for the shrubs, and they are really spreading out nicely.

Maybe, even, too nicely!

But Sunday’s highlight (definitely not the rugby! 😦 ) has to be the Ypsilandra thibetica I found last year, after I had seen it featured on a fellow blogger’s post (thank you, Chloris!). Its healthy clump of green leaves has been there since then, but now the flower buds are starting to appear.

I can’t wait for its first violet scented flowers to bloom!

Spring sunshine and promises of things to come.

It’s amazing what a bit of warm, sunshine can do, not just to our spirits but also to the garden!

I was walking round “The Estate” yesterday, and suddenly, all had become “spring-like”. The crocuses and daffs from the last few weeks were being overtaken by so many other new buds and flowers. Signs of life and promise were bursting forth everywhere.

The crocuses we planted first, are really spreading out now and creating impact. However, are now starting to look past their best for this year.

The forsythia, which we inherited when we moved in, has stayed even although it doesn’t “fit” my scented border theme, purely because I didn’t fancy trying to dig it out! Instead, I’m keeping it well pruned to keep it from dominating, and using it as a host for a scented climber. I’m trying to establish a Clematis rehderiana through it. This one has pretty, lemon bell-shaped flowers, with a scent of cowslips. But the forsythia’s cheeriness does earn it it’s keep, at this time of year! Here it is, starting to do its thing.

These new shoots of another scented clematis, this time Clematis flammula, definitely show the promise of things to come! This, despite being cut back hard in Feb, will smother its arch by the end of summer. Its shower of white starry flowers, billow forth providing a spectacular display. And yet the scent is quite delicate – a soft, almond scent.

Hellebore “Ashwood hybrid”

Hellebore “Ashwood hybrid”

Two of my Ashwood hybrid hellebores are going great guns at the moment. These are in my two small “black & white” beds. You can’t tell here, as is the nature of hellebores, but the white ones have wonderful purple/black speckling inside the flowers.

Prunus incisa “Kojo-no-mai”

And my beautiful Cherry! I love it’s quirky stems, and delicate, soft pink flowers. I was determined to have some Cherry blossom in my garden – no scent granted, but another lovely, harbinger of spring. As I was running out of border space, I opted for a dwarf variety to grow in a pot. What a choice – it’s been a thing of beauty ever since. This year I’m planning to treat it to a new, bigger pot!

These unnamed primulas and dwarf narcissi, are remnants of a previous Mother’s Day present – a potted plant display that my son bought me two years ago. Once the display went over, I planted them out. And haven’t they done well! They sit nicely at the end of “The long garden path”, nestled around our statue in the “woodland” area.

My tulip shoots are coming through too. I wanted to grow some in a spare pot I had and fell in love with a recommendation of Sarah Raven’s – “La Belle Époque”. It’s described as a double tulip, mainly pink, with coffee colouring at the base of the petals and with flashes of crimson and green. The picture looks nicer than the description sounds – trust me! I’m looking forward to seeing it flower.

Woodland in spring

And to round it all off, a shot of our “Woodland” garden, which I revamped last autumn, by adding some more shrubs for autumn interest at the expense of some poorly performing perennials. It’s coming on!

All this, and the sounds of spring too! The bees were buzzing round the new blooms, and the birds, now busy, we’re twittering away. And eating out in the garden for the first time this year. Roll on summer! (Hope I haven’t jinxed us now!)