THIS WEEK IN MY GARDEN - 17 JANUARY

 We've had fewer frosty days this week, so there has been some gardening done, thank goodness.  It certainly needs a bit of tidying up and cutting back.  We did have some beautiful sunshine, but not on the day I chose to take these photographs.  

In the rose garden the deciduous ferns have died back into a droopy brown mess, that needs cutting off with secateurs.  

I have an inkling that there may be a hedgehog hiding under the some of it (there has been in the past), so those will have to wait for a while.  

I've carried on with pruning the roses and Mr B has carried on tackling the evergreen shrubs and this yew hedge.  

When I planted this in 2013, I said to  myself 'once this is fully grown I can open my garden for the NGS' and so here we are, planning to open this August.  Click on this link to see our entry

Yellow Book Entry  I'm grateful for all the advice and encouragement I received from those readers who already open their gardens.   There's no going back now!

Flowering treat for this week is the Winter Aconites in the Woodland Garden.  No sun to make them open up for you though. The yellow globes sitting on their green ruffs look splendid emerging from the drab litter of leaves.

I thought you might like a glimpse behind the scenes to the compost bins.  Mr B constructed these and they are his pride and joy (I exaggerate only a little).  He is always keen to investigate the compost arrangements in any garden we visit.  The annual turning of the heaps is  heavy work and will need to be gone soon before the lawn moving recommences.

 Moles.  Lots of mole hills.  Everywhere.  Along the side of paths.  In the centre of the lawn.  Dotted over every square metre of the orchard.  It's not just our garden that has been so favoured.  Everywhere I go for a walk seems to be similarly hummocked.  Lets hope their underground metropolis is nearly complete.

To cheer myself up after the mole based carnage, I had a little splurge on the Sarah Raven website.  I was looking at Dahlias and somehow they were selling seeds for £1 a pack (planting by end of 2025 not surprisingly) and it seemed rude not to buy some.   I chose some vegetable seeds - courgettes and tomatoes of course, and cavolo nero because it will look pretty and not because I want to eat very much of it.  In the flower line I chose calendula and nasturtiums for the Long Border and Ammi because I've never grown it before.  For reasons I can't quite fathom I tend to avoid anything that seems 'fashionable'*, but I'm going to broaden my horizons.

*Cosmos also falls into this category

Looking at all the pretty illustrations on the packets, I'm sure great things lie ahead.  At this time of year all things seem possible.  

Thank you for stopping by to read this weeks blog.  I hope to see you next week for more garden fun and games.