What is it about the turn of the year that has us all making resolutions, drawing up plans and imagining a better gardening year ahead? Even when I have consciously decided to avoid all the new year hype, I still find myself greeting January with a sense of excitement – a fresh new diary, a new planting plan and a clean sheet to start making notes on. I have been away from regular blogging for some time now and am missing sharing my gardening notes and musings here. I have spent time over the last few days going back over previous January posts and I value the record of years gone by that this blog has become, as well as the incentive it provides to keep on improving the garden. As this is the first post of the year I have taken the liberty of using photos shot in previous years – these are hints of the garden to come later in January – not images of how it is today on the first day of the year.
Above you can see a little of the part of the garden that sits at the front of the house – as the garden wraps around the house we do not have a defined ‘front garden’ as such, but this area is the most mature and hence I have named it ‘The Old Garden’. It is home to the oldest trees and hedges that we have and is enclosed by very old flint walls. In this area sits the old coach house where the parish Rector would have kept his coach and horses in the days before cars. The original mangers are still in the stables, which now act as chicken house, potting shed and garden store room.
This old doorway leads out onto the road – I always get a sense of entering ‘The Secret Garden’ when I come in through this door. Since moving here – now 7 years ago – I have done very little gardening in this area at the front of the house. The grass is cut and the hedges trimmed, but the few beds are left largely to their own devices. It is my plan this year to start to add more colour to this part of the garden – perhaps some old roses to scramble up the flint walls, hydrangeas and lavender to fill out the existing beds and plenty of herbs to add a sense of history to the planting in this area. I am planning to photograph the Old Garden regularly this year and share my progress with you.
I have also been very lax with growing vegetables in the last few years. It was growing my own food that initially sparked my passion for gardening, but as the demands on my time from elsewhere have grown I have let the vegetable garden go. This year with hopefully more time to spare I plan to make a fresh start – there will only be two of us at home on a regular basis so I don’t need to grow a lot, but I do want to make sure there is a supply of home grown treats to harvest. I will be starting by covering some of my rhubarb with my forcer this week – there is nothing to beat the first long pink stems of the year.
I also need to get back on track with my greenhouse. My monthly Greenhouse Review will be back this month, although after the terrible autumn I had there will not be much to show for a while yet. My first plan is to get some herbs going in the propagator to provide some fresh flavours for winter soups and omelettes. These chives are from a couple of years back, but I hope to get some fresh ones growing to use this winter very soon.
Now that January is here I can start to look forward to a new season of flowers! The snowdrops are poking through the soil and should be in flower soon and the first hellebores are already in flower with plenty more that are full of buds. My paperwhites in the greenhouse are just about to flower and I saw the first muscari on a walk earlier today. I am ready to start sowing seeds later this month and will be returning to my monthly round up of what is going on in the Cutting Garden at the end of the month.
So with everything to look forward to I have spent the afternoon ordering my dahlia tubers and planning what vegetables to grow this spring. I will be back tomorrow with my first vase of 2017 and later in the week with my list of early January jobs and a look at how my hellebores are doing. I am keeping my fingers crossed for some better weather as I really would like to get outside this week!
Finally I wish you all – my lovely readers – a very happy New Year and I am looking forward to having lots of lovely flowery and garden related chats with you throughout 2017!
So nice to have you back for the new year Julie. Looking forward to your posts and how your garden develops. Love, love your pictures.
Thank you Nancy – I am looking forward to another year of photographing the garden as it develops – it is such a lovely record to look back at.
You sound so positive in this post Julie and yet I guess it won’t necessarily have been easy to write it and hint at the moving that will take place as the new year and new season progresses. It will of couse be lovely to see regular vases from you again and read about what is going on in various parts of your garden, not to mention seeing your lovely once more
Thank you Cathy – you are right that this is a hard time and I don’t always feel as positive as I try to sound. I am glad that all the commitments of the festive season are over now and I can have a few quiet days to potter in the garden and try to come to terms with how life looks now. I am particularly looking forward to getting back to the routine of making and photographing vases – that always brings me peace of mind.
Nice to hear your year is off to a positive start and full of the new year’s promise. I think it’s going to be a great one!
Thank you Frank – I hope your year shapes up well too!
Wishing you all the bet for 2017. We are knee deep in snow so I am certainly looking forward to Spring. Love the photo of the snowdrops.
It feels like a long time since we have had snow – my son is going to Canada next week to snowboard in Banff so he is delighted that you have so much snow! That photo was taken last year – they are only just showing right now but hopefully will be in flower soon. Wishing you a very happy new year!
Correction. Wishing you all the best for 2017!
Best wishes for 2017 Julie. I hope it’s a good year for you. Sue x
Thank you Sue and all the best to you for 2017!
Welcome back, best wishes for the new year.
Thank you Brian – wishing you a very happy new year!
Great to see and hear you back!
Thank you Ruth – happy new year!
Glad to hear you are back in your lovely greenhouse, Julie. Looking forward to some scenes of what’s growing in there and outside. Best Wishes for 2017! -Beth
Thank you Beth – wishing you a very happy new year!
All the best for 2017 Julie. Hope it’s a great year for you and your garden!
Thank you Cathy – wishing you a very happy new year too!
You’ve made good plans for the New Year and I look forward to seeing your progress as the months unfold.
I have not been around much recently Julie so I’m just catching up reading your blog. I’m so sorry to hear about your mum. We are following a similar path at the moment as my Mum left this world in December. You will be very much in my thoughts. I hope that 2017 is gentler for both of us. Take care and I hope that as the flowers start to appear once more that you will be able to find some comfort and inner peace xxx
Dear Anna I am so sorry to hear that you have also lost your mum – Mothers hold such a special place in our hearts & they leave a very big hole. You will be in my thoughts as this year progresses and we will both seek solace in our gardens on many occasions in the coming months I am sure. Julie xx