A British garden in January is not always an appealing place for some and it is tempting to ignore the garden until milder times. Although our garden is not looking at its best right now, there are ways to improve the garden and make it pleasant year round. A quick look around the front and back garden in the pouring rain today shows there are still some plants working for our pleasure in the first month of the year:
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| Copyright Robert Widdowson 2016 |
At the front of the house there is not really a garden significant garden space at all. There are two bedding areas, perhaps 1 square metre either side of the front door and we have done some planting here, despite the soil being essentially builders rubble from our newly built house. We have put a small plastic planter under the window to the right of the front door. My partner has planted it with a white flowered Hellebore, which flowers in winter and adds some much needed cheer to the front of the house. She has also planted a small conifer which she bought from the local greengrocers to add some year round structure. In the small space in the middle I have just popped in some Muscari bulbs which we had stored in an ice cream tub in the shed over the last summer. They were already growing shoots in the tub and should be quickly making a beautiful early spring display.
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| Copyright Robert Widdowson 2016 |
Also on the front we have created a small winter display in two brightly coloured plastic pots. In the pink pot there are Cyclamen and a Heather. These all flowered wonderfully all winter and even though the Cyclamen have slowed flower production and the heather flowers have dried off, they still look great and i especially like the Cyclamen foliage. In the green pot there is an Ornamental Cabbage which we tried planting for a bit of an experiment. It looks good, but Slugs have been consistently eating away at the lower leaves, but it continues to fight on as it grows taller at the top. The extremely wet and mild winter has meant Slugs have been having a fine time. Behind the Cabbage is a small Conifer, which was in the window box during the summer but we have moved it as it grew bigger and we thought it would look great in the pot with the Cabbage.
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| Copyright Robert Widdowson 2016 |
We have two White Hellebore planted out front. One is in the planter below the window and the other is a larger variety which is planted in the soil/builders rubble and has not flowered as of yet. Next to this dormant White Hellebore is this beautiful Purple Hellebore, which is flowering heavily and looks great. They are fantastic winter/early spring flowering perennials and certainly cheer up the British winter garden. They look great in the bedding area, but the flower heads do naturally hang downwards, so they may look even better if planted in raised bed, raised container or even perhaps a winter hanging basket.
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| Copyright Robert Widdowson 2016 |
Before concluding Part 1 of what looks good in the garden in January, where we have looked at the front of the house, the Red Robin is definitely worth a mention. We have it planted as a small standard and it requires careful pruning to stop it swallowing the whole space and going wild. It has beautiful flowers and great foliage year round but it is looking very appealing here today with it's fine new red shoots appearing, which contrast so nicely against the green leaves.
In Part 2 of 'What Looks Good in the Garden in January' we shall have a look in the back garden for some more early season delights.
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