Border Patrol – January 2018

My intent with this monthly series is to have a record of how the borders change from month to month as the seasons progress, and ultimately from year to year. Being January the garden is still mainly in resting mode, although there are many signs of things to come. There are bulbs aplenty; new growth on perennial plants; the roses are putting out new growth; and the weeds that came with the manure mulch are beginning to show.

Let’s take a quick look around.

Rear Garden

Border 1. The first thing I note is that the planter on the left, not strictly part of Border 1, needs clearing out. Mostly this border is marking time. Apart from a few daffodils on the left there are no other bulbs apparent. There are alliums to come up but no sign thus far. There’s a notable lack of tulips, perhaps I didn’t put any in. Something to fix. That rosemary looks a bit bedraggled, I might retire it. On the right the grasses and the broom look Ok, and I must prune that sprawly cotinus. You’ll note the Becks Beer 6-pack wrapper nestling amongst the daffodils. This is why I don’t have an Instagram account…

Border 2

To misquote the movie The Sixth Sense, “I see pruning.” The clematis all need doing soon, the physocarpus needs cutting back, as does the aforementioned cotinus. If you zoom in to the images the buds on many of the clematis can be seen clearly. That is always a delight to see, although I note there are some where that is not yet happening. I hope they are not permanently hibernating. There are a lot of bulbs making an appearance. Mostly daffodils, but some tulips. There are also many alliums in this border, yet to show their face apart from the drumstick alliums which are sending up wispy tendrils already. In general the mulch of rotted manure is still hiding fresh growth on numerous perennials. I have big plans for the borders on this side of the garden, a significant expansion that will provide considerably more planting space. This is a GOOD THING given the quantity of seeds I’ve sown recently.

Border 3 – Bulbs, again, including some drumstick alliums. Otherwise this bulk of this border is mainly clear, waiting for plants. The climbing roses I planted a couple of months back havw been pruned and are beginning to show signs of life. The wisteria has been pruned back since last time, I am hoping for a good display again this year.

Border 4 – If that scruffy lavender isn’t gone by next month I shall be disappointed with myself – it is adding nothing. I can see fresh growth on the aster ‘little carlow’, an encouraging sign. That rosemary though – hmmmm. It is taking up good border real estate. I have a small one grown from a cutting that I could use for cooking purposes, perhaps I’ll set that up in a pot and shred this one. Don’t even get me started on the vinca. I’ll be cursing it in a month or two.

Border 5 – “I see pruning” again. The physocarpus, the abelia, the pittosporum, the dogwood, all need doing. I see an opportunity to improve the under planting. If I raise these shrubs up a little I could make some more headroom for shade tolerant plants.

Border 6 – That penstemon shows no sign of giving up. I will cut it back to six inches soon. As part of the master plan to alter drastically the garden layout, this border will also get bigger and change shape too. More on all that in separate posts later this year. I am lacking a photo for some reason – trust me, there’s not a lot going on.

Front Garden

Borders 7, 8 and 9 – Lots of bulbs! And some weeds. And lots of new growth on perennials.

Border 10. I finally got around to planting those pansies, and the bulbs I planted in the autumn coming through. I shall be growing a lot of annuals this year, I forsee many finding their way to this little area, purloined from the verge on the wrong side of my garden wall.

Ovetall, bulb emergence aside, not much has changed since last time around.

I’ll be back in a month with another Patrol, by which time I expect to see some daffodils, dammit!