January

Winter still hasn’t really hit us hard here – but we have had much more frost and a few flurries of snow. The soil in the raised beds is solid and the lettuce and parsley had given up the ghost by the end of the month. The strawberries don’t seem to notice or care about the weather. They’re happily in their raised beds and pots just gently losing their leaves.

The birds are getting extra feeds now the weather is colder and it’s a constant job of topping them up every day to help them in these really bleak months.

I am normally a hater of snow but this year as I’m not leaving the house, never mind commuting, it can snow as much as it wants! Bring it on! I know that everything out in the garden currently can take it so I don’t feel guilty praying to the snow gods on a regular basis.

My planning for spring has really kicked in this month and I am so excited about the next few months. We’ve decided which veg we’re going to grow and we have plans for expanding our raised bed offerings. We need three or four more raised beds to accommodate the plans for potatoes, carrots, beans, peas, onions (I have to get them right this year!!), spinach, extra pots and a new space for the tomatoes, cauliflower (for next winter) and maybe some salad greens.

And this is before I’ve even thought about the flowers. I have seeds from last year’s sweet peas, delphiniums and cosmos which will all feature in this year’s garden. I have four amazing hydrangeas which need to get a more prominent place this year – they were overshadowed by the sunflowers and cosmos last year so we need to find a corner for them to shine in their own right this year.

Something I’ve probably not talked about in this blog is my other passion – paper crafting and scrapbooking. It started many years ago when my obsession with taking photographs found an outlet in pretty paper and journaling. Over the years I’ve documented everything in my life from holidays to gigs to my garden. As an obsessive planner I decided to combine all these creative parts of my life into an inspiration board for our garden. It comprises 14 cork boards that are loosely divided by month (with a few spares for busy months). All the plans and tasks for the next few months are right in front of us so we can keep on top of what needs to be done. As we move through the year I can shuffle things round as we need the space. I love the process of using my scrapbooking and journaling skills alongside my photographs (I treated myself to a little LifePrinter to get tiny photos for the board) and planning skills.

I’m getting excited for the next few months now!