Is There Anything to See in the Garden?

Surfacing three days into 2018, to wish you all a Happy and - most importantly - healthy New Year.

I'm writing 'hunkered down' indoors today - in the tail-end of Storm Eleanor, which has done much damage to the west side of the UK . Thankfully there has been no damage here (though the rain blew into the kitchen last night from a direction I've never seen it come before!). I'm looking out of the office window and as far as I can see all the fencing is still stood standing. Everything else looks rather dull, grey and brown…and yet…

I took a walk around yesterday, just to see what is starting to appear from underground. Just a few shoots (surprisingly early) of daffodils at the bottom of the garden - but I was also surprised by how many little points of interest there are out there if you look. It made me realise the importance of both hard landscaping and having a few 'focal points' for the eye to settle on when there is little in the way of flowering plants to brighten the stroll.

Here are just a few images and ideas from the 'New Year' version of Autumn Cottage garden - I'll be looking out for others throughout the year.

 

The first exciting signs of new growth as the daffs come up

Flora looking wet and wan!

White catches the eye against the grey/brown background

The old sun lounger continues to disintegrate rather beautifully, covered with moss & lichen

 

A purple Periwinkle with varigated leaves really brightens up the landscape 

Cornus sanguinea 'Midwinter Fire' flaring up after frost

Ferns in blue pots and old blue bottles on the patio

More blue pots, a varegated hebe and the Cranes all give interest...

The potting shed... yet more blue pots with several evergreens perking up the corner (time to paint the shed again, though - one of my 'Winter jobs' when it is dry enough)

A less beautiful area - the lower pond. Leaf netting still in place, that can be moved now that the leaves have all fallen, to prevent tannic contamination of the water as they break down.

Still plenty to do out there!

 

 

Comments

[Ardi]

What a lovely walk around your garden with you, Roz. I had never heard of leaf netting, but it seems a very wise thing to do. We clump our leaves onto the flowerbeds once they have been cleaned for the fall. Then in the spring the leaves that haven't decomposed are raked up and put in the compost. It does keep the weeds down during the winter. Happy New Year!

[Sue Krekorian]

The lichen is so beautiful. There's an ancient woodland at Ebbor Gorge on the southern slopes of the Mendips, where lichen thrives. I must get up there once the weather and my health improve. The colour of the periwinkle is a delight. We have some winter pansies flowering their hearts out, and a miscellany of bulb shoots have been bravely/foolhardily showing since November. Rarely is anything as dead and barren as first it seems. As a friend once misuoted, "A garden is a thing of beauty, and a job forever"!