I’m really enjoying the season edging ever closer towards spring at the moment – as I wander around our garden the signs of it’s promise are everywhere; allium and tulip bulbs pushing through the cold earth, muscari and hyacinths popping up to add some colour, and the buds on the camellia just about ready to pop.

I thought I would start doing a monthly post on my plans for the garden, sharing what’s looking good each month, and including a list of to-do’s for that month. Last year was the first year that I really managed to get out in the garden since we moved in over two years ago (the first summer being far too preoccupied with a newborn!) and although I managed to plant up some of the beds and take out some of the shrubs I wasn’t keen on, I still have lots of plans for the garden this year. You’ll see from most of my ‘before’ shots here that there is lots to do! The plot is long but narrow and north facing, both of which present some challenges in terms of the amount of sunlight, and the previous occupants were big fans of not very interesting shrubs, which isn’t really my style, so I’m trying to bring more colour and more texture into the garden.

Raised Beds

My main focus is the back section of the garden, which was fairly neglected when we moved in. I’m planning on clearing a bed that contained two bushes (which I’ve now chopped down to the ground) and creating a raised bed to try my hand at growing some veggies. We have about 2m of space so should be able to grow a few things - I’m thinking courgettes as I’ve heard they’re fairly easy!

Perennial weeds

We have two big offenders when it comes to weeds in our garden – the first being field horsetail, or Mare’s Tail (evil stuff) which I’ve come to a kind of reluctant truce with, and the second being bluebells. “Oh, they’re lovely” I hear you all exclaiming! Well, I love a nice bluebell as much as the next person, but in a residential garden they are brutish bulbs and rapidly take over. I spent many hours last year clearing beds of bluebells and have now started to tackle the few beds that I didn’t quite get around to. Our back section of garden still needs the second half of a bed cleared and I’m planning to extend and repeat the quite traditional planting of lupins, salvia, roses and allium that fill the first half of that bed (cleared and replanted last spring) to create what I’m going to christen ‘The Long Border’.

Mediterranean Planting

I’m really looking forward to seeing how my Mediterranean bed does this year. We had our patio installed in June and I planted up the bed next to it towards the end of last summer, inspired by this planting that I found on Pinterest.

I wanted to make good use of grasses as I find the texture and the way they move in the breeze so relaxing which is perfect for a spot next to a patio. I used grasses Miscanthus kleine silberspinne, stipa tenuissima, festuca glauca, as well as verbena bonariensis, artemsia powis castle, and perovskia blue spire. I’ve dotted both allium purple sensation and allium sphaerocephalon in amongst these, which should flower at different times giving an extra pop of colour. Unfortunately as you can see in the picture below, our rather soggy summer last year wasn’t the best of starts for my drought tolerant planting, so I’m hoping that they all start to pick up and fill out the space a bit more now we’re hitting spring.

The bed on the other side of the patio also needs a lot of work - both planting wise and with the fence! Alongside an existing peony and stachys ‘silver carpet’, I planted some sea holly (Eryngium Bourgatii Picos Amethyst) and globe thistles (Echinops Vietchs Blue) there late last summer, so it will be interesting to see if they re-emerge, as it’s our local fox’s favourite place to do his business and they weren’t looking too good as they retreated into the ground! I also took up a rather sad looking hydrangea that wasn’t a fan of the sunny spot and I’m planning on adding some more grasses and oriental poppies to fill out this space. For now though, as you can see, it looks like a pretty blank canvas.

Jobs to do in February

• Get out there and do a good weeding session to prevent weeds from establishing themselves
• Pick up any remaining leaves
• Cut back ornamental grasses if you left them over winter – just grab the grasses and shear through at the bottom, leaving about 3cm. If you do this in February you should get to it before any new growth, but if there are signs, try to avoid damaging it but don’t worry too much – it’s grass, so it’ll recover fine
• Even evergreen grasses need a bit of a comb through to remove any straggly bits
• Prune wisteria and winter flowering jasmine
• Prune evergreen hedges
• Plant bare root roses in a sunny spot to allow time for the roots to establish (if your garden lacks a lot of sun, try Gertrude Jekyll – I’ve had good results from this rose in a spot that only gets about 4 hours of sun a day)

Are you planning any big jobs for the garden this year? Have I missed any jobs from my monthly list? Do let me know!