End Of Month View ~ February 2014

A four letter word to describe my February - FOUL! It wasn't just the weather (although we have been extremely fortunate here) that dripped incessantly but my nose too. No I've not had a cold but a number of unexpected and quite dramatic nose bleeds. The last one was like a scenario out of a horror story, when having just about to step into the shower my nose started to bleed and on this occasion was in no hurry to stop. It was great fun getting dressed again with one arm at my disposal. To cut a long story short I ended up travelling via ambulance to the nearest A&E department where the offending orifice was eventually cauterised. This sounds painful but was just uncomfortable - touch wood the procedure seems to have worked. We left A&E late at night with some antibiotic cream and advice to take it easy and not to stretch, bend and to try to avoid being exposed to contrasts of temperature for the next ten days. So all in in all February has not been a month that will be remembered for its gardening activities.

In fact I even too grotty for a couple of days to make the short journey from house to greenhouse so that I could peruse my special snowdrops. That situation did not last long I'm glad to say and after muffling my nose in a swathe of woolly scarf I ventured out for a daily inspection. These snowdrops gave me great pleasure this month. A few more have arrived in the post to swell the ranks so hopefully I will be able to show you some of them from late autumn onwards. A couple of them are very early or late flowerers, depending on which way you look at it.

Meanwhile the garden has carried on doing its own thing without any interference from me until the last week when I've ventured out for some gentle pottering. The snowdrops in the garden are now at the point of going over but there are hellebores, irises, crocuses, primroses, little daffs and pulmonarias giving some welcome colour. It seems that everything is ahead of last year but then last winter was so prolonged so it's not a good comparison really. There has been a tiny bit of planting this last week which must have been the driest week we've had for weeks. I've introduced some of the special snowdrops in to the garden and himself has done some tree planting under my supervision. We've moved a couple of pear trees back a few feet and have introduced a new companion- malus 'Red Sentinel' to them.

I can't really say anything about my allotment plot other than I have not been there. Hangs head in absolute shame! I have sown some beetroot and broad beans in the last couple of days so it has not gone out of my mind altogether. Some spuds arrived in the post yesterday and have made it as far as the unheated back bedroom.

An area that I plan to feature regularly this year on these EOMV posts  is our north facing courtyard which you can glimpse above. It has been sadly neglected of late and the plan is to give it a good tidy up. I used to have a regular display of seasonal containers there which seem to have petered out over the years. The plan is to have mostly foliage interest. I also want to make use of the chimney pots, a gift from my sister - in - law - the twin sits on the other side of the front door. Before considering the planting I need to get to work on these bricks which as you can see from the below photo have definitely greened over with moss and weeds over the last few months. I do not like using chemicals so any suggestions other than getting down on my hands and knees scraping it out would be most welcome ~

Plant purchases this month - more special snowdrops, malus 'Red Sentinel', pittosporum 'Irene Patterson', a small amelanchier lamarckii, and a couple of ferns namely dryopteris atrata and dryopteris erythrosora var. prolifica.

Without a doubt March is going to be busy. Thanks to Helen as always over at 'The Patient Gardener's Weblog' who enables us to share our end of month views.

PS Having just popped outside for a few minutes I realised that I omitted Mahonia 'Soft Caress' from the list of plant purchases - please forgive the shortened name. It is headed for the courtyard but presently awaits a suitable pot.