THIS AND THAT

 It's still quiet in the garden, so I've had to look around and found this and that to put together in a post this week. The week started off frosty and the ground remains frozen so gardening is a bit limited.

I was unsure whether to include snowdrops this week as they aren't making much of a show just yet.  Here they are anyway.  The first few.  Looking back on last year's posts the snowdrops didn't feature until February whereas they were there on 18th January in 2020 and 23rd January 2021.

So what does one do when there's nothing much to get on with in the garden?  There's always the garden centre of course.  I was actually after a pretty hellebore, but the ones they had were pricey and not yet in flower but I found this instead in the reduced corner.  £2!  I thought it would look good in a pot for now until I decide where to plant it.

Heuchera 'Sugar Frosting'

The other thing one can do is read a gardening book in front of the fire.  I got this one for my birthday, and realised I hadn't yet got round to including it in a Six.  I've been on two courses run by Adam Frost and therefore been lucky enough to see the garden he was developing at his previous house.  Although this book is mostly aimed at people with little gardening experience, in that it runs through the basics, it is very enjoyable to read, and has gorgeous photographs of that garden.

Like this one for example.  Wouldn't it be lovely to sit here with a cup of tea?

            

           

I also got these fab gardening gloves for my birthday.  They are RHS ones, and quite the smartest gloves I own.  They are wonderful and warm and thorn proof so ideal for rose pruning.  I'm doing my best to keep them nice and clean and using my cheapo Wilko gloves for the muddy stuff.

One of the jobs on the overdue list is pruning this beauty.  Do you have this in your garden?  It's Prunus Lusitanica Variegata, and it think it's rather attractive.  Evergreen, with creamy margins to the leaves and red stems.

Some of the tender shoots get a little browned by the frost, but not enough to spoil it I think.

That's it for next week, which fingers crossed, will include lots of lovely snowdrops (not fancy ones just lots and lots of the common kind).  

All the Six on Saturday posts can be found on Garden Ruminations our new home from home thanks to Jim who is caretaking while the Propagator takes a break.