Workout. Work. School. Work. Walk (if I manage to get out). Work. Sleep (if I’m lucky). Repeat.
Quite obviously, I’m in need of a much more inspiring list than this. Time to tee up some gardening jobs to take me through to spring. Herewith, so far:
Order greenhouse
Have managed to persuade the home faction that a small greenhouse in the potting area will be a beneficial and educational facet to the garden. Have found a 6 x 4 ft aluminium number with polycarbonate (kid proof) glazing that should do the job. ‘Ships within 15 weeks’ = latest end of April… hopefully it will come much sooner than that. Better get the base organised in the meantime.
Order seeds
Every year I say I won’t sow as many seeds but the feel good factor of the process gets me every time. ‘Order seeds’ in this case therefore means sort out the seeds that I already have before I order any additional ones.
On a mission to create a sustainable filing system for my seeds and notes so that I can come back to it every year and not miss the boat on optimum indoor and outdoor sowing and germination times – and so I can get better at introducing year round colour.
Pretty sure I already have an inspiring seed stash of perennials and herbs including echinacea, giant scabious, hollyhocks, Mexican daisy, feverfew and nasturtium so can now have fun filling the gaps.
On the edible, raised bed front, I made a pledge to only plant lettuce, beetroot and kale as that’s all I ever harvest, so am going to try and stick by my word. And only a few pots/types of tomatoes, although I also say this every year . . .
Order shrubs
Somewhere in my email inbox is a note to self that includes a host of grasses and shrubs I was too late to incorporate into our front garden last year. Found it: ‘Grasses and Shrubs’. I did in fact go one further and did a preliminary order with a nursery that I then took a screen grab of. Big pat on the back to me (get your congratulations where you can).
Grasses include golden oats (Stipa gigantea), feather reed grass (Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster, switch grass (Panicum virgatum ‘Shenandoah’), Chinese silver grass (Miscanthus sinensis ‘Ferner Osten’ and ‘Malepartus’). I’ve also earmarked more asters (Symphyotrichum ‘Little Carlow’) for autumn colour and dogwood (Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’), witch hazel (Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Pallida’) and hydrangeas (Hydrangea paniculata ‘Little Lime’ and Hydrangea arborscens ‘Annabelle’) for winter interest. A good list to get going with.
Think I need a few more large ferns (shuttlecock fern Matteuccia struthiopteris and male fern Dryopteris filix-mas), a couple of roses (bare-roots to plant now?) and clematis (to scramble up the house and over the bike shed), and more of what worked brilliantly last year – catmint (Nepeta faassenii and Nepeta ‘Six Hills Giant’) and agastache (Agastache ‘Blue Perfume) for good measure.
General maintenance
The bit I’ve been putting off due to the weather but having put the work in clearing leaves in autumn, it’s not looking too bad. Surveying my plot. I need to brush away worm casts from the lawn to stop it turning into a complete mud bath; order and install trellis on the right boundary wall; clear away soggy perennial stems ready for new shoots; turn the compost and bag up any good stuff to make room for more; check hellebores and roses for leaf disease; dredge the pond for fallen leaves and other debris; and clean and sharpen my tools.
Don’t forget the birds!
Last but not least I really, really need to clean and refill the bird feeders with high energy food and make some bird houses to dot around the garden for breeding time. If anyone wants some easy instructions, I included some in the Collins Birdwatchers Bible published last year. Off to pester the other half for a couple of ready planks of wood.