February garden

For many years our garden was bare in all the cooler months, these days I have some colour, I adore hellebores, these bloom first in the garden, I have added to them, my daughter has given me two for birthday gifts (my birthday is in November). I now have 5 plants in different colours. I hope to get a few more, most of these are at the back end, which is now my veg section.

I again adore snowdrops, but the bulbs rot in our heavy clay, over the 15 years we have lived here, I have added loads to the soil to break it down, so the bulbs now survive, I grow them in the ground and in pots, once the flowing pots finish, I intend to put them in the ground and get more bulbs later in the year. 

My seed potatoes are starting to slowly sprout, I'm not thinking about them going into the grow bags until March is here, so slow and sure is the route for me. It's a very itchy time of year, I want things to grow, I know it's to early to sow or plant, but the desire is there. 

We did pop to The Range, hoping to get a replacement Tony tortoise, he was a gift and through the winter his head broke off, sadly none in stock, but these came home with us, I have been looking for red pompom dahlias for a while, I hope there is one in the mixed bag, hubby chose the single colour one. All these packs for just £10.

There are leaves from bulbs everywhere, the long side bed going to the garage is full of daffodils, later there will be bluebells, the new bed is full as well, I will have to check back on photo's as to what I planted, or maybe just wait and enjoy. The old herb bed is not so full, I will transplant more from the side bed after they have flowered. The Magnolia tree has a couple of pink buds as well. 

The amount of rain we are again having keeps me inside, most afternoons we read, in one way it's good, it stops me doing things, as does these bloody stick around bugs. Hubby is still unwell,  neither of us have any energy, we are planning a garden centre visit one morning soon.

Whilst waiting for the days to pass so I can start my seeds, I have been thinking about my strawberry tower, it's needs it's permanent place, somewhere it can sit and not be in the way, whilst being in the sunshine, I do have an idea forming using the space outside my greenhouse. I do like to think things over because you can always be sure to move one thing in our small garden, starts a chain reaction, where other pots need to move, and repurposed.

I'm not eating much, hubby did make simple pancakes for tea last night, I am craving sugar, so I had mine with part of a chocolate covered icecream Magnumn, and some fresh raspberries. Valentines day will pass quietly in our house, we have cards, which are in their 3rd year of use, we just wrote another message inside with 2024 beside, no gifts or flowers, at our ages we don't need wasteful stuff to prove our affections for each other.