Our garden in Janauary

January is often an uninspiring month when it comes to the garden. Although we have been keeping weeds at bay, protecting the tender plants and perpetually picking up leaves off the lawn, that fall from the mammoth Sycamore Tree, that resides at the house at the back, not too much had been going on until this past week. It is fair to say that our garden looks bare and exposed right now as it is relatively new and does not have many perennials of good size to create a winter display. However, signs of life are starting to appear and I have been doing a little pruning of Roses which are beginning to show new shoots and our healthy spring bulb collection of Snow Drops, Crocus, Dwarf Iris and Tulips are all sprouting out awaiting some sunshine and a little more warmth.

As we want to show you how our garden changes through the seasons, we are posting some pictures of the garden now so you can see what it looks like at its coldest and most damp:

Copyright Robert Widdowson 2016

As you can see, not only do we have a small garden but also a small but cosy and pleasant house, which has a patio door leading to the decking. We have several containers on the decking which house trees, a Lavender trained as a standard, Hydrangeas and trellis for a Wisteria against the house and Clematis and Honey Suckle in the white wooden planter. There is a paving area for containers with a small metal obelisk which is home to a Climbing Hydrangea and a Coprosma next to it with Succulents and Alpines in the gaps between the paving below. We keep a lot of plants in containers as it gives us the freedom to move them around but also because we will one day have to move to a bigger house and we want to easily take our plant collection with us. in the right hand corner is Blackcurrant, Redcurrant and two Blueberry with the Dwarf Iris bulbs and some of the Tulips planted in between.

Copyright Robert Widdowson 2016

From the decking and facing north, you can see the perimeter of the garden and the fencing which was painted green by the previous owner. The lawn is a little overgrown but far too wet to consider mowing. In the far corner below the neighbour's Sycamore is our rose arch bench, which gets most of the sun in the summer and is planted with a different Climbing Rose on each side. Behind the bench we have planted a small Conifer hedge to eventually hide the rear fence gate and some of the pathway.

Copyright Robert Widdowson 2016

Closer to the Bench you can see our hanging basket containing Strawberries on the left and our bird feeders on the right. We currently have somewhat traditional borders which we filled with Rudbekia and Cosmos last year, but we have different and more exciting plans for the year ahead. Behind the bench you can see the emerging hedge and below there are Foxglove which we grew from seed last year and should hopefully provide us with lots of beautiful blooms in late spring and early summer.

Copyright Robert Widdowson 2016

Along the fence at the back of the garden we have created a display of pots in which we grew Fuchsia last year as well as trailing and climbing annuals. It worked pretty well, but did end up a bit disorganised and messy by the end of last year's flowering season, with the Fuchsia not really reaching their full potential either. We will keep the pots this year but will go for a different and hopefully more dramatic and composed floral display this flowering season.   

So there you have a January tour of our garden. I hope you can see we have done a fair bit to what was all lawn when we bought the house and you can see the potential for this year too. We have plenty more to show you and share as the days move on and the plants begin to spring to life.