23 December 2008 - Christmas in the Garden

Christmas is just a few days away and as hard as we try to persuade the garden to go to sleep, then it busts into life! The snowdrops are popping into flower as quickly as we clear the leaves. The plicatus ‘Three ships’ is first but it will soon be joined by ‘Colossus’.

I used to dread the gloom of this time of year but now that I have caught the galanthophile bug I find it so exciting. Particularly this coming year when we play host to the Cottage Garden Society on the 21st February and I hope that our collection behave well and impress. I have every hope that our mystery snowdrop will be identified and might even thrill some!

We were very busy last Spring dividing as many clumps as we could and hopefully we have spread our drifts throughout the whole garden and woodland. We want visitors to take advantage of clement weather and come when they can. They should find our snowdrops in all corners and they are beautifully supported by nearly as many hellebores. We are also working on extending the woodland paths so that people can walk confident that they will avoid our pits and falls and even the few bramble patches. We may even get round to those if the weather stays dry and we get back from France.

We are spending the early part of January working on Saby. We are taking our long-suffering friend, Lucy with us hoping she may have a few bright plumbing ideas but also so that we can celebrate a new year in France as well as here. The weather is as cold there as here so I doubt that we will do many garden tasks but we are keen to see the bare bones of the garden so that we can begin to draw up future plans.

We hope to introduce rooms using a large variety of materials such as stone, wicker and as many hedging plants that will put up with the hot summers. Most likely we will begin decorating the bedrooms and find some way of putting in the bathrooms. But we will find time to enjoy wine, food and song with some lovely friends. We are even packing a murder mystery to bemuse our French friends.

When we get back the main drifts of nivalis should be well in flower and the year will have truly started. My mother and I are sure that it was lighter this afternoon and that thought makes me feel happy and optimistic.

We are more or less up to the mark on garden jobs and have only the seed order to sort out. We will certainly aim to be earlier in our sowing, as we were this year. The growing times seem to be changing and we have to take advantage of the warmer springs.

Tomorrow is a mix of fruit pruning, food shopping and present wrapping. Can’t wait!

posted by B Johnson @ Tuesday, December 23, 2008