Grim Beginnings!

This blog will give a week by week account of my garden as it transforms from a mire of mud to , hopefully, something more colourful and abundant. I will take photos every week to show what is happening, what is changing, flowering, and waiting in the wings. The wildlife I encounter along the way will also be included, as will anything else of note. The aim is to document the changes throughout a whole growing season, starting with the new shoots in Spring and ending with the die back in Autumn.

The garden is about half an acre in size, on the edge of a small town in North Lincs. It is divided into smaller areas - veg and soft fruit ; exotic; wildlife etc but it is, in essence, a long, thin cottage garden. I have 2 greenhouses and raise lots of stuff from seed. We have pheasants, squirrels, owls, newts, frogs and the odd intrepid visiting chicken !

I have gardened this patch for 30 years and never cease to be amazed by the yearly transformation from brown to psychedelic, so this year I have decided to document the changes. I love the time-lapse sequences of gardens growing and changing, and hopefully my weekly photos will show the changes in much the same spirit.
There will be weekly photos of 'What's hot' around the garden and they will be close ups of the best performers of the week. The garden looks bleak and empty this week but I was surprised by how much is actually flowering, when I started to take photos.
I have started my blog with a few photos of the garden in full summer dress , just to remind me of where we are headed.
This is my first post and it will be grim indeed !
The mire of mud is vast although life is stirring sure enough !

This week  (beginning 11th March 2013) I saw the first frogspawn in the wildlife pond and the first frogs watching me from the shallows. The first daffodil was fully open and I celebrated that by accidentally stepping back onto it !

This is a new part of the garden which we started last September on the site of the old polytunnel. It is in memory of a very special friend. It is partially planted but will need lots of new planting when the gaps are evident.

                                                                                                                                                                               This is the poor old veg plot with some weather battered strawberry plants and some skinny little leeks !

Pulmonaria

The wildlife pond complete with frogs and newly-laid frogspawn

No caption needed!

Newly transplanted Dahlis seedlings - 'Bishop's Children'

Hellebore

Primrose
More next week !