Sunday 1 January 2012

What's in the garden on Jan 1 ?

Although this time of year is a pretty slack time in the garden, if you look closely there are always a few things of interest.

Most obvious is my flowering cherry tree. This year we have had very little in the way of strong winds and heavy rain so the blossom of the Autumn Cherry has not had to endure its usual battering...


The Wallflowers are looking very strong. They won't flower for quite a while yet, but I think they are building up the ability to put on a good show in the early Spring.


The foliage of the ferns has still not died down fully, presumably because of the mild conditions we have been experiencing. Underneath this year's slowly browning fronds, the buds are already swelling for next year's growth.


The Buddleia Davidii (new to me in 2011) has lots of new silver-grey growth, I'm hoping that with a bit of judicious pruning it will be more compact this coming year.


My little patch of Land Cress is healthy, and still growing well. It's never going to produce large quantities, but a even just a few of its peppery leaves are enough to liven-up a salad every now and then.


Over in a corner near the compost bins, the Good King Henry is putting up new growth. It's more of less evergreen. There are few points in the year when it has no young shoots at all. The tender young leaves occasionally find their way into one of our salads.


Perched on the end of a bamboo cane supporting my Bronze Fennel is this haughty little Duck-shaped cane-topper. He has a history too you know. He was given to us many years ago by the student exchange partner of one of our daughters. He hails from Lindenberg in Bavaria...


I was going to say that he has rather a "stuck-up" expression, but I suppose that could have something to do with having a bamboo cane thrust up his rear end?!!

15 comments:

  1. You're right there's always something of interest no matter what the time of year. Our Mahonia Japonica has cracking yellow flowers at this time of year for example.

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  2. Lovely little cane topper. I wonder what the difference to your garden would be if we'd had some proper winter weather rather than the mild weather we've had so far.

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  3. These photos almost look like Spring.! I wonder if there will be some really bad winter weather yet to come? Enjoy the green while we can!

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  4. Interesting that your land cress is thriving and Good King Henry is coming up. With this mild weather I'm honestly tempted to start sowing a few salad leaves and see what comes up - I've known it be much colder than this in spring time! Happy new year Mark - hope it continues to be a good one!

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  5. Love you haughty duck! My Wallflowers started blooming again in October and are still doing it. Your tree looks so pretty.

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  6. The Autumn Cherry is quite pretty. Happy New Year!

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  7. Still plenty going on if you look hard enough even though it's pretty mild compared to last year it's still a bit too cold to stay out very long.

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  8. It's amazing to me that there is so much green in an english garden in January!!! Bizarre!!! It's all looking great tho Mark and hopefully you'll have a fruitful 2012! xxx p.s. Love the cane topper ... he'd be called Jeeves in my garden!

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  9. He he he, most amused by duck and his unfortunate predicament vis a vis the bamboo pole (although I don't think he looks too unhappy about it though...)! Your garden is looking beautifully lush for January isn't it? Happy New Year.

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  10. You know I'm new and don't know what some of your plants are, but what a treat to get to see growing things at this time of year. Thank you for sharing Mark.

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  11. At first I thought the duck was a interestingly shaped potato or J artichoke. Our hellebores are now budding so that's something to look forward to

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  12. this weather is so freakishly warm, we've got all sorts of stuff growing that really shouldn't be there... it's like the end of the world... Happy New Year xx

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  13. Snowing here today Mark. Enjoy your balmy winter!

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  14. Wow! You have a really wonderful garden! You have managed to utilise your space properly by adding some very important pieces. Definitely looking forward to more posts.

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