Front lawns given the first haircut of the year. First day I've been able to walk on them with all this rain. It has been mild so they haven't stopped growing. 

I've already got sweet peppers and chillies sown in heated propagators.

Good on you StoneCroze. I'm a bit slow off the mark this year- used the weather as an excuse to do very little. But the elephant garlic I planted last month is up, and the savoys, spinach and purple kale have kept producing through the winter thus far.

 

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I was able to trim the back garden grass in a dry slot many weeks ago. All it needs now is a quick tidy to remove twigs and tufty bits. Do the edges which is the key to making it look looked after. The leaves on the borders were more or less pulled under by the worms in the mild weather and I can see some snowdrops peeking through. It's a few more weeks though before the north garden sees the sun again.
In the meantime the front of the house has sunlight beaming through at this time of year which is great.

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You're all making me feel guilty! I'm glad we have so much moss. I like bryophytes - and tardigrades. 😁

Secrets of the world's toughest creatures revealed
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-40752669 

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First daffodil in yellow bud

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First daffodil in yellow bud

That's early - but snowdrops have starting to show for some weeks here.

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A few more bulbs are starting to push up here and the primrose plugs I planted in the autumn are starting to grow a bit quicker too.

Not long now!

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Everything's full speed ahead in the woodland bank, with snowdrops, crocuses and a lot of early pulmonaria. The first yellow buds are showing on the miniature daffs and the first spikes of ramson leaves are showing. Cyclamen (spring flowering sort) and celandines adding colour. All a bit early really but no immediate freeze in sight here. 
Fish are mobile and hungry. Expecting early alkanet and plum blossom soon (as local damson and mirabelle trees are in full floral display).

We've finally organised a tree surgeon to massively crown-reduce our walnut. It's so huge now, we need it down to about 15ft high so we can manage it ourselves. 

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Something to enjoy...

International Garden Photographer of the Year competition 2024
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-68127991 

 

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Camellias in bloom next door

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We still have two weeks left of winter, but you'd be forgiven for thinking spring has arrived. Not only is it 15C, not only are the pigeons nesting in the trees, but on a quick tour of the garden I've found all of these! If anyone knows what the ???s are, I'd be interested to know!

Plum tree - https://ukwct.org.uk/weather/feb/1.jpg 


??? - https://ukwct.org.uk/weather/feb/2.jpg 


Mini daffodils (out for over a week) - https://ukwct.org.uk/weather/feb/3.jpg 


Mountain ash / rowan - https://ukwct.org.uk/weather/feb/4.jpg 


??? - https://ukwct.org.uk/weather/feb/5.jpg 


Tulips - https://ukwct.org.uk/weather/feb/6.jpg 


Violets - https://ukwct.org.uk/weather/feb/7.jpg 


Snowdrops - https://ukwct.org.uk/weather/feb/8.jpg 


??? (some sort of shrub, I think) - https://ukwct.org.uk/weather/feb/9.jpg 


Hazel catkins - https://ukwct.org.uk/weather/feb/10.jpg 


...and a hoverfly, resting on a granite wolf. There are plenty of "bluebottle" flies about, and I heard a buzz of a bumblebee too!
https://ukwct.org.uk/weather/feb/11.jpg 

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4 is not a rowan but a prunus, probably cherry plum P. cerasifera

5 is cyclamen, C. Persicum var. Red

9 looks like an evergreen viburnum V tinus aka laurustinus (but not so sure on this one)

2 - I'd have suggested crocus opened unusually wide but I'm sure you'd have recognised that. But try C. vernus 'Queen of the Blues'
 

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4 is not a rowan but a prunus, probably cherry plum P. cerasifera
5 is cyclamen, C. Persicum var. Red
9 looks like an evergreen viburnum V tinus aka laurustinus (but not so sure on this one)
2 - I'd have suggested crocus opened unusually wide but I'm sure you'd have recognised that. But try C. vernus 'Queen of the Blues'
 

Thank you for the info! You're a font of knowledge, and a reminder that I really should have paid more attention to what my mum was telling me back in the day.

5, the cyclamen, was planted by my mum in the 90s. I remember her going on about a "sicklamen", as it sounded to me, but had forgotten all about it until you jogged my memory. She may have died 23 years ago, but the flower she planted lives on.

Similarly the others are in the extra bit of land I purchased, my late neighbour's garden. Number 4 is interesting, as the flowers look very similar to those which have appeared on what I'd assumed was a rowan (in my original garden, self-seeded), but I suspect it's actually the same type of tree - I've a feeling quite a lot of seeds from next door have landed in my garden over the years!

As for 9, I hadn't realised there was such a thing as an evergreen viburnum. I've a regular viburnum in the front garden (planted in 1992 by my mum, and now a good 4 metres tall), but of course that's just bare at the moment. Number 9 was planted around the base of a fruiting cherry tree by my neighbour, and despite being cut right back when I had a new fence put in, it's growing back exceptionally quickly!

I can't remember whether I've posted it before, but if not - here's a new one for you, which I'm relieved to say has made it through the winter. It's cleyera japonica var japonica, and there's only one place in the UK which sells that variety. There are only a handful of these in the whole of the country!
It's the sacred tree of Shintoism, and I thought it went well with the Japan-themed elements of my garden.

https://ukwct.org.uk/weather/feb/12.jpg 


I bought it from here:

https://panglobalplants.com/product/cleyera-japonica-var-japonica/ 

...and I highly recommend that company if you're after anything unusual or rare... they have all sorts of interesting plants on their site!

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Rowans have a dense cluster of flowers (they look like an umbel as in cow parsley but are not actually so), certainly not the isolated ones in your photo, and come along much later.

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Rowans have a dense cluster of flowers (they look like an umbel as in cow parsley but are not actually so), certainly not the isolated ones in your photo, and come along much later.

That's good to know! I'll keep an eye out to see what the leaves are like when they appear (I think they're alternate, rather than opposite) and I'll do an ID check when I can.

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Things starting to move along here now, unsurprisingly earlier than normal due to the mildness. The daffodils, crocuses and primroses are in flower and the clematis is starting to show fresh shoots too.

My tomato seedlings are coming along nicely on the windowsill too.

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We still have two weeks left of winter, but you'd be forgiven for thinking spring has arrived. Not only is it 15C, not only are the pigeons nesting in the trees, but on a quick tour of the garden I've found all of these! If anyone knows what the ???s are, I'd be interested to know!

Plum tree - https://ukwct.org.uk/weather/feb/1.jpg 


??? - https://ukwct.org.uk/weather/feb/2.jpg 


Mini daffodils (out for over a week) - https://ukwct.org.uk/weather/feb/3.jpg 


Mountain ash / rowan - https://ukwct.org.uk/weather/feb/4.jpg 

IMAGE. Members enable at bottom of page

??? - https://ukwct.org.uk/weather/feb/5.jpg 


Tulips - https://ukwct.org.uk/weather/feb/6.jpg 

IMAGE. Members enable at bottom of page

Violets - https://ukwct.org.uk/weather/feb/7.jpg 


Snowdrops - https://ukwct.org.uk/weather/feb/8.jpg 


??? (some sort of shrub, I think) - https://ukwct.org.uk/weather/feb/9.jpg 


Hazel catkins - https://ukwct.org.uk/weather/feb/10.jpg 


...and a hoverfly, resting on a granite wolf. There are plenty of "bluebottle" flies about, and I heard a buzz of a bumblebee too!
https://ukwct.org.uk/weather/feb/11.jpg 

Some really nice photos- our garden is ahead of its time similarly.
The tree flowers look very similar to our plum tree- and if that's the trunk behind it could well be a dessert plum. Ours bears yellow fruits ripening to yellow with a rust-coloured blush.
The tulips are actually crocuses also.

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I was able to cut the grass yesterday in the drying easterly. Garden looks tidier and I did the edges through which the blackbirds, robin, sparrows starlings enjoyed hunting for grubs etc once I'd finished.

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Since it’s begun drying up, I’ve also begun to notice the local cats have returned to make sunny spot a midden. I bought some garlic cat repellent yesterday and this did the trick last night. The garden now has a remarkably strong fragrance of garlic. Works for vampires too I’ve read, which is a bonus.

Beginning to get a bit too dry for successful nocturnal mollusc hunts. The best time is one of those damp evenings with light rain and mid to high teens temps. I could cease all pest preventative measures as the RSPCA suggest David but I prefer a garden where I’m enjoying a beer and not tickling rats under the chin to make them giggle. In any case, what is the disease that rats carry?
Maybe someone's been watching too much Ratatouille.

Back to the slugs, is a biological nematode mollusc based pogrom arguably as ‘cruel’ as squashing them?

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Been cutting lawns all winter, not unusual for us.

Sweet peppers have gone mad, I had a nightmare last year with all manner of seedlings. Eventually worked out it was some dodgy compost.
Anyway, sowed sweet pepper seed back in early January, some now have flowers but I suspect too cold at night to transfer to greenhouse for final planting out as last night temp. dropped down to 9.6C.

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Another dividend of the restrictions of frictionless trade the Govt promised us.
Garden centres and nurseries are stockpiling plants before Brexit checks are introduced later this month, amid concerns over whether new border posts will be ready to deal with the volume of deliveries.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/17/garden-centres-in-uk-stockpile-plants-before-new-brexit-checks 
 

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