It's time to start your gardening adventures for 2023!
First and foremost – Happy New Year to you all. We hope you all had a lovely festive break with family and friends.
If you’re anything like us, you’ll all be chomping at the bit now to get out and start your gardening adventures for 2023.
As you may remember, back in November Ken and I had a weekend of sprucing up the pots on the patio for the Winter but, if I’m honest, we had so much summer bedding still looking gorgeous and flowering its heart out that we couldn’t bring ourselves to turf it all out so some of it got a reprieve. Well, I have to say, it’s not looking quite so glorious now!
The big freeze in early December has certainly taken its toll and we have some decidedly sad looking pots and containers out there now – not ideal for fending off the inevitable January Blues.
So, job number 1 on our list of garden activities for 2023 is to finish off the job we started in November.
Primulas are one of my very favourite plants for the start of the year. It never fails to amaze me that these delicate looking things will keep flowering through the wind, rain and even snow adding colour and scent to the garden – and not only that but when they’ve finished doing their thing you can move them to a shady little spot in the garden and ignore them for the rest of the year, safe in the knowledge they’ll flower again next year.
And there’s something for everyone, from the bold and bright Flamenco Fire to the soft pastel shades of Double Provence, and everything in between.
Another absolute favourite at this time of year is Sarcococca. With its evergreen foliage and delicate white flowers, it is very pretty to see in a pot on the patio or planted in the border, but the real knock out thing about a Sarcococca is the sweet scent – often you can smell it before you even see it and that never fails to make me smile. The tricky thing is picking your favourite – White Gem has striking red stems and a pink tinge where the flowers meet the stem, whilst Dragons Gate has green stems and pure white blooms, perhaps I will just have both!
Finally, in my opinion, no Winter Garden is complete without a blousy Camellia, showing off its fancy-pants blooms on a chilly day. Camellia Lady Vansittart is the perfect example, semi-double white blooms flushed and striped in rosy pink. And if that is not your thing how about Bonomiana with large, double pink blooms, striped a deeper pink. These gorgeous flowers really fill you with warmth when it’s cold and grey out and are happy in pots and containers as well in the border.
Before I wrap up warm and get on with re-rejuvenating those pots though, I’m just going to enjoy a quick cuppa whilst watching the birds on the feeders. So far this year, and it’s only the 4th January, we’ve already counted 27 different species of birds in the garden. They’re beautiful to watch but jolly hungry so I may have to set Ken off to re-fill those feeders – again!!
Happy Gardening,
Lousie xx