New Years Day potter up the garden

[MrsBertBibby]

What did you do?

I lobbed in some giant muscari bulbs, pricked out some lychnis coronaria seedlings, and cleared a load of dead foliage from the geraniums.

There are bulbs coming up all over! And a big old bumble bee snacking on the bacopa which still hasn't stopped flowering.

Cutting back and clearing dead foliage.
I'm having having front garden revamp, so having cleared quite a lot of it I can start to think about where things will go.
Also getting some picket fence to go around it, so needed to clear back to enable that to go in.
Been a lovely day here, sunshine sunshine blue sky and dry paths for the first time in weeks.

Oooh exciting! What are you planning?

Made 2 areas into ‘flower beds’ meaning I didn’t really pull up the ground ivy or dug up the wild primroses but planted azalea, leucothe, liriope, red robin, and heuchera in one and transplanted the mock orange as it was getting no sun into the other bed. Planted a sambucca black lace, (so exciting) and planted my tree peony into a proper place for it. !

We put in a black lace last autumn, my dad has a whopper in his front garden, I hope ours does as well.

Leucothoe is lovely. Wish I could have it, but we're on chalk.

Following because I know very little about gardening but would like to get better this year… hoping to get out there tomorrow and tidy up a bit. I’ve already put bulbs in for spring

@MrsBertBibby

We put in a black lace last autumn, my dad has a whopper in his front garden, I hope ours does as well.

Leucothoe is lovely. Wish I could have it, but we're on chalk.

I have acid soil, lots of rhododendron and azaleas here !

Always wanted a black lace , so just had to have it when I finally found one yesterday. They seem to need complicated pruning ???

Weeded veg beds - buttercups attempting a takeover - and cleared steps and path of grass, weeds and a surprising amount of mud. Looks v posh now, most satisfactory. Does perusing Dahlias online count? A lovely time of year for plans and garden dreams 🥕🌺

I am getting impatient to get the Christmas decs away, so I can fire up the propagator and start sowing!

I did my usual New Years Day flower count. Only 13 in actual flower, a bad year. I think being warm is not necessarily good for flowers, some of the early flowers seem to be triggered by having had enough cold weather to convince them it’s winter.

Oh I just missed snapping a bumble bee on this beauty.

You're right, Mere, the weather is odd. I still have an osteospermum flowering away. And I just saw my arabis has started.

I have an Osteospermum in the greenhouse! My hellebores are still in tight bud, my arabis isn’t even showing buds. Basically all I have are the usual winter stalwarts, and a stray Matthiola incana.

I have just bought and am about to plant out two black lace! Hoping they do big things quite quickly?

I am currently part way through a slightly ambitious project to re garden 3/4 of an acre that we have previously used to free range birds on. The pond is being drained over last week and this and will then be replanted and filled. I've put a border of lovely shrubs and buddliea round one side of it and have some trees to go on the other to add a bit of shade.

Yesterday I planted periwinkle in the woody border which I'm hoping will choke out the nettles which are abundant and have been hacked back. No matter how much time I spend pulling the bastard things up they come back with a vengeance.

I've planted a load of bulbs as a quick and easy fix. Will be interesting to see what flowers come up now there aren't ducks and hens to eat them all. I know I'm late but hoping the tulips will think this warm weather is autumn and still come up in spring?! I've got a load more to put in today and will just chuck them in and hope for the best.

Do you ever get osteos to overwinter, Mere? I have tried bringing them into the porch, which is the closest I have to a cold frame, but they always seem to give up the ghost in March. To be fair, they are so easy and cheap to get as plugs, I have stopped bothering much, but they are such gorgeous things, I always feel sad to see them perish.

It’s not a guaranteed thing by any means. I don’t normally grow them, so on the basis of about 8 plants, I think I have successfully overwintered 2max.