Where's the Spring?

Still too cold to do anything in the garden so I'll share some more pics from last year. We're getting a wide variety of birds coming in to feed on the copious amounts of seed I'm putting down but the numbers are down on previous years.  No sparrows at all now. Sad. Good news is it's too cold for cats to come out and chase the birds!!

We had a go at growing veg in the front garden as it's very open and sunny. Unfortunately local cats thought we were providing toilet facilities so these were dismantled. It was a shame as we had a good crop of carrots and onions as well as salad veg. But can't compete with determination of local felines!

It's still too cold to do much apart from tidying and planning. It's not going to get any warmer either according to the predictions so I'll have to content myself taking pics of what's been growing so far.

We call this shrub "NOT rosa rugosa" as it's similar but definitely not the same. Will look up the true botanical name and let you know next time! 

The roses are deep red and smell exquisite. It repeats flowering all summer right through to November.

This is an ornamental Japanese cherry which accidently starting growing in the garden. It started life as a mere stick brought from our old garden - used it to support another plant in a pot on it's journey here.  I stuck it in the garden where it took root so I left it there!  It has the most beautiful pink blossom and smells divine.
As you can see, the buds are swelling nicely so not long to wait now.

This rather sad-looking specimen will burst into life quite soon.
It's a "montana" clemetis which is planted in our next-door neighbour's garden but is so vigorous it travels over the fence.
The next pic show how it looks in full bloom.

To remind myself that the garden really does look lovely for a few months each year I'm sharing this pic I took last year......

Monday morning and it's absolutely freezing - literally - putting paid to my plans to start on much-needed work in the garden.  But I'm not easily thwarted so instead of getting my hands dirty I took myself off to favourite garden centre to treat us to some short and long-term colour.

As I was already out and cold to my bones I decided to research costs of posts and trellis for planned screen by the shed. Expensive! Think I'll check out wood yard instead. I used to make all our trellises as it's much cheaper but this time I'm going to buy readymade. Should be able to save money on the posts though.

 

Watched Gardeners World (BBC1 - UK) to see if Monty had any new insights ....alas no but he did remind me to prune my clematis and sambucus nigra "Black Lace" to give maximum size leaf/flower and colour later in the year. 

The sun has just come out for the first time in ages and is shining on bottom section of the garden where our hardy geraniums are kept in check by Bella's regular watering!

 

So here we begin in earnest!  The following pics show the challenges ahead but hopefully you'll be pleasantly surprised by the plants already living here as the weather warms up. As you can see we already have helebores (well 3 to be precise) and a few primroses and crocuses.

The shape of things to come