Galanthus Ding DongI’ve been slowly adding special snowdrops to the garden for a number of years now. Nothing very unusual but each year I have bought 2 or 3 special bulbs and planted them out in the garden. So it is thrilling to see them bulking up now and reappearing year after year even if the labels which I know I put with them aren’t so reliable. Galanthus ‘Ding Dong’ is usually one of the first to flower and is now a good size clump from just one bulb.
Galanthus ‘Selborne Green Tips’
Galanthus ‘Selborne Green Tips’ is in the same border as ‘Ding Dong’ and by a process of elimination this should be ‘Selborne Green Tips’ but there is a distinct lack of green tips so now I am befuddled. I will have to wait and see how the flowers open out and see if there are any more clues.
Another mystery is this hellebore. I have had it for years and I have always thought it was a helleborus niger but as the plant has grown again I’m not so convinced. What is really strange is that it always seems to struggle to lift its flowers up, they spend all their time almost prostrate and facing the ground. If anyone has any ideas I would love to know what it is.
I mentioned earlier that I am reviewing the garden and it is interesting how when you have ignored a space for nearly a year that you then see it with fresh eyes. One of the areas that is top of my to sort list this year is the compost area. I have battled with the compost bins for years but now with my fresh approach I have decided that enough is enough. They take up a huge amount of space in my small garden and with the best will in the world I’m awful at turning them and managing them. About once a year I steel myself to empty them out and it nearly kills me partly because I have to move all the unrotted stuff but also because the slopes in the garden makes it exhausting to barrow the good compost around. So I am planning to do away with them – outrageous I know. My local council has a green waste collection service so I have bought a wheelie bin and it is collected fortnightly. I am impressed with how much it takes; so far it has coped with my obsessive tidying up and pruning and if for some reason I create more garden waste than it can take I will take the extra to the dump and put it in the green waste recycling there. Then when I need a mulch I will buy some green compost back from the council. Yes this is a more expensive approach but I buy green compost every year anyway and I doubt I will buy more so I see it as a win win because once I have cleared the current bins I will have a new area to plant up which can only be a good thing.
So that’s the first plan for the new year.
Hope you managed to spend some time in your garden this weekend.
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