Saturday

A definite feel of warmth today. It is pretty windy and more rain is expected again.

The wee rhubarb I rescued is doing well in its pot while the rhubarb I bought in the autumn is growing well. It is called Goliath is growing well.

Tuesday

I’ve had a busy few days both in and out the Magic Garden. I have cleaned out the cold frame and washed its glass clean so that Ben can get it all smeary again. The seed growing is so far going well this year with the first lot of broad beans planted out into the vegetable troughs. I have taken cuttings from the white buddlea

My lovely cat twitter friends have given me a Edgeworthia chrysanthemums Red Dragon in memory of my Mum.

Saturday

Another day filled with sunny intervals and time in the Magic Garden for both Ben and me profitably spent. I cleared some more sludge out of the pond, thinned the rushes & irises at one end and reconfigured the boulders again. I then set up the solar fountain to try and aerate the water a little. I filled it up a bit too and added some antisludge treatment.

Good Friday

We have had a lovely afternoon only briefly interrupted by showers. Ben spent some of it supervising my efforts and seemed to enjoy the sunshine by the pond. Today was mainly about maintenance with some weeding & deadheading of daffodils together with clearing the finished vege from the troughs and replanting with fresh red curly kale. The green variety is still going strong but has started to go to seed so will get a bit bitter now. I potted up a blackcurrant bush which hopefully will rapidly get its feet down. The gooseberry & blueberries are already flowering but there are not a lot of pollinators in evidence. At the end of the afternoon it suddenly darkened with much heavier rain but by the time I was putting the hedgehog food out it had passed over.

Monday

We have had a few interludes of dry today but we seem to be back to cold and wet even if the wind has gone down. There is more bloom every day. The rose I was given in the autumn is making a promising start

Sunday

We’ve had a beautiful sunny day. The long tailed tits have been particularly busy at the fat balls. The hedgehog is back at night so I am putting food out for it each evening. The yellow daffodils appear to be being shredded although it may well be the wind.

I am pleased to have an increasing number of snakehead fritillaries

Friday

We had some sunshine today but the wind is bitterly cold. Ben stayed out in the Magic Garden for a short time while I pruned back the two climbing roses and tied them into the fences. I planted out anemone blanda in the gap in front of the red dogwood.

Saturday

Its been grey & cold here today with a bitter east wind off the sea. I probably chose a bad day to clear / clean out the pond. I cleared bucket fulls of accumulated silt and leaves from it and re filled with fresh water. I need to get a new solar fountain now although sunshine seems unlikely and to get some anti-mud water clearing stuff in.

I treated myself to some snakehead fritillaria today and planted out a couple of foxgloves and another dogwood.

Ben meantime has continued loving the catnip plants I put in the back winter border while he ignores the birds & they him.

Tuesday

We had an unusually bright day today and it has felt like spring with leaves beginning to unfurl. The daffodils are beginning to make a show back and front. I’ve put a little bit of a barrier over Ben’s favourite nip plant but I think I may need to protect it more from his love.

Sunday

The ground is horrendously soggy at the moment although at least everything is greening up as spring arrives. Ben is loving his catnip plants but I think I will have to protect the ones I planted this year. A little bit of sun was welcome today but it is very chilly. Inside I at lat got round to sowing sweetpeas, broad beans and Dahlia Bishop's Children

Tuesday

For Ben today was all about the catnip. I suspect my latest wee plants are going to be hatched out of existence so its as well that the others are all sprouting away. It isn’t just the catnip that looks a bit battered - quite a few blooms look a bit past their best.

Sunday

Today has been a lovely day with intermittent sunshine and very mild. I spent a chunk of the afternoon out in the Magic Garden with Ben in attendance. He was very enthusiastic about the wee catnip plants I interspaced with the cyclamen at the back of the garden and enjoyed a nap on the hedgehog house.

I also planted out Cynara cardunculus bare root plants and admired the amount of herbaceous perennials now pushing back up through - even the monkshood is showing signs of life. More daffodils are out and the crocus collections is lovely.

Saturday

It is very mild today and it managed to stay dry until late afternoon before starting to rain hard again. I took the opportunity to move the broken arch and obelisk before planting out the achillea modules that arrived this week and more of the Eryngium Silver Salentino. Ben came out too and supervised the tidying up phase before deciding to investigate the arbour bench’s potential for a snooze.

The first pulmonaria are out - think here are called raspberry ripple

Thursday

Its continued to be wet much of the time but today although damp it is very mild. The signs of spring are getting more obvious and the wee daffodils are coming out. Ben is rather pleased that the catnip is also re-sprouting.

Wet Sunday

It was incredibly wet again this morning although we had a brief respite late this afternoon. It didn’t seem to put the birds off the feeders but Ben rapidly decided the outdoor world could wait for another day.

Another Saturday

Its been an incredibly wet week and the Magic Garden is very soggy. Ben came out to inspect the bird water but was not impressed by the snow drops I was planting out having received them in the green or the first of my daffodils coming out. It does look very bedraggled. The hellebores are still doing well while the primroses are still looking battered. I did some general clearing of wet soggy material. I was rather worried by finding what looks like coral spot on the blackberry. I cut out the dead material and have put it in the refuse, sterilising the saw and secateurs.

Saturday

The 10 darkest weeks of the year are gone now as we pass Imbolc. We still have a fair breeze and a dampness to the air but the sun has been out and so has Ben, if only briefly. The hellebores are beginning to look their best and the snowdrops are becoming proper wee clumps. When I went to look I found there were small flushes of deep blue, the wee irises are beginning to put on a show. I continue to be really pleased with this year’s new winter border - the two Christmas boxes are blooming constantly and although the cyclamen have looked rather roughed up by the weather & pigeons I think they will establish.