January In The Garden - And The Weeds Are Still Growing!

Just after Christmas, I was outside tidying the garden, which I had left very late to be doing but the pleasant conditions outside made it a pleasure, rather than a chore.

It felt really good to be getting all the fallen leaves sucked up and into the homemade container, made from chicken wire, to rot down into gorgeous leaf mould.

The perennials were all cut back, even though one of my geranium's was still putting on growth, I thought it really needed a rest.

I still haven't planted my tulip bulbs yet. I know it goes against the instruction books but I am going to test a theory that you can plant them out in the winter and they will be up and flowering at the same time as the ones planted in the autumn.

My garlic is now starting to emerge from the soil. I planted those out between Christmas and New year in a wooden planter. We have had to put chicken wire over the planter to stop the cat going in there but I am really glad I have planted garlic again, as the ones I grew last year are so delicious. The garlic you buy in the supermarket seems to have a much harsher flavour, compared to mine, which are sweet and mellow. I think garlic is one of those plants, where growing your own, is worth such little effort and it's not about saving money, it's all about flavour.

The seed catalogues seem to be dropping through the letterbox on a daily basis at the moment.

This year, much of my garden is going to be given way to flowers for my wedding in September. I have a lovely book by Sarah Raven called Grow your own cut flowers. I think people have been reluctant to grow flowers for cutting as they feel they are some how depleting the garden of colour but Sarah teaches you that instead of dead-heading to encourage more flowers, why not 'live-head', as she puts it. I can see a resurgence in growing hardy annuals especially for cutting and Sarah makes it easy by showing you which plants are easy to grow and go well together.

If this is to be any sort of success for me though, I really need to be on top of the snails this year. They ruined my dahlias last year and as dahlias and chrysanthemums are the backbone of my displays, vigilance is at the top of my agenda.

I have had lots of success with chilies in the greenhouse, so I think this year, I am going to try and find some more unusual varieties to grow and also try some different tomatoes this year.

Looking at this weeks weather, it looks as though we might have some frost to kill off those weeds but if this doesn't materialise, I think over the next couple of weekends, I'll have to wrap up and get outside and pull them up. In the grand scheme of things, they're not really doing much harm, apart from taunting me with their presence.

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