It's been a while since I last posted. Almost four month's: where did the time go?

Not a lot happens in the garden during the winter. Some tidying up, the odd bit of weeding and perusing the gardening books for ideas. OK, so that last bit was more Janet than me - I'll be the one with the motorbike magazine in my hand and a wistful look on my face.

Then the garden bursts into life and it's mayhem. Seeds to sow (Janet's job), weeding, mulching (my job), plant buying, discussions about where the new plants should go, visiting East Ruston Old Vicarage for inspiration. There's barely time for a G&T on the patio.

I've taken a few photographs but they don't show too much. The joy of a new shoot signalling a plant about to burst back into life is difficult to capture on film - the medium is too coarse (in my hands) to show these things well. However, there are a few changes in the garden and plants that are giving a bit of a show. So, here are a few of them.













I took this photo a couple of week's ago. These Hellebores have given a fabulous show - it's a great shame that they hang their heads like they do.




And more...








They're in our "shady" border just in the corner by the conservatory, practically beneath the tree fern.


The banana plants have been unwrapped and are looking a little sorry; we would have left them a little longer but we noticed that the ones in Urban Jungle were exposed.

It seems that a late frost might damage them a little, although the roots are relatively hardy, but they are more likely to suffer from damp conditions when wrapped up to long.

By the way, the plant in the foreground (I don't know its name) is related to the pineapple and is supposed to be tender. It's been out, unprotected, all winter and is in rude health.


The Prunus Incisa "Kojo No Mai" hasn't given so many flowers this year - in previous years it has been a big ball of white flowers. On the other hand, the Camellia at the back of the small pond is giving a great show despite some frost-damage.

There are a couple of recently purchased plants in this shot, too. The varieagated Euphorbia and the red-leaved Bergenia have been planted in front of the small pond. This has been something of a dead-spot since we cleared the weeds that surrounded the pond; we hadn't got around to putting something there. We had to widen the planting space to make room and there's still a spot that we need to think about. Oh, while we're looking at the pond area; we have cleared out the pond as the plants had all become rather messy and moved the Aquascetum (spelling?) from the larger pond, which has also been tidied up a bit.

We've added a few plants to the back of the patio - under the Gleditsia and Acer - a couple of Mahonias, some evergreen and varieagated Azaleas, Myosotidium and a Lathyrus. We bought some rotted leaf mould from Fairhaven Water gardens and put it as a mulch and we're really rather pleased with the effect.




Finally, here are a couple of photos of the Magnolia in the front garden. as ever, the pictures don't do it justice.

From in front....
















And one from above