Whilst the garden has gone into hibernation the work still goes on clearing beds of the spent flowers and putting them through the shredder to make wonderful compost for the coming year.
The pile of tulip bulbs stored in the garage were planted in November and I eagerly await seeing the first little tips appearing above ground in February. They are planted in rows, very close together, think eggs in an egg box.
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| Tulip bulbs planted in polytunnel |
The ranunculus and anemones are planted in beds in the polytunnel and hopefully the mice will leave me a good few to sell in the spring.
December
Early December was all about wreath making. Foraging for greenery, wiring all the decorations for the wreaths and table centres, spray painting poppy seed heads and alliums collected and dried earlier in the year, sorting through the dried helichrysums to find the best ones and collecting the moss for the wreath bases. The thought is rather daunting but once the radio is on and the first one starts to take shape it doesn't take too long. The only down side is the cuts on my hands from the wire and holly and the colour of my hands at the end of the day.
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| Wreath making starts |
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| The first few are ready |
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| A special order for two identical wreaths, first one ready |
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| First time using lotus seed heads, I will definitely be using them again |
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| Our table centre, I remembered to make one for us too! |
Today is the 5th of January 2018 and I am going to sow another batch of sweet peas. The first batch, sown in October 2017, are looking rather bedraggled after the temperature dropped to between -6°C - 9°C for a few days but I'm sure they will bounce back. Even though they look so delicate when flowering they are extremely hardy and like cooler temperatures to get going so fingers crossed.
The outside beds were covered with a thick layer of snow and so nothing was to be done apart from admire them on our way past to the hill for some tobogganing fun!
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| The cutting garden hiding under the snow |
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Cutting beds in paddock covered in snow
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Now the snow has gone but the rain has arrived making everything very wet, muddy and sticky. Far too cold to be doing much outside apart from more tidying and preparation but inside the polytunnel will start to fill up once again with the biennials and autumn sown hardy annuals.
I'm off to the greenhouse now to have a tidy up and get some seeds sown.
