Saturday 28 December 2013

Garden Dreaming

As the beginning of next year approaches I find my mind turning to the garden again. It appears that not a lot is happening  out there at the moment but there is a lot of promise of things to come. I squelched on down to the greenhouse this morning to grab a spade as I had a tiny camellia and a rose that wanted to go in. Even though it was gently raining, the wind has died down and it was a pleasure to be outside again and to soak up the inspiration I always get from being in the garden. Somehow it fuels my imagination and I came in all excited about the prospect of what I will grow next year.
I am pretty organised with my seeds (well I am a pretty organised man in general but I take it to extreme with my seeds) and as it happens I still have a lot of half packets all of which have best before dates on them for 2014 and a few that I saved from plants this year. That means I may as well plant every single seed and see what happens.
I then made myself a hot chocolate and had a happy couple of hours going through gardening catalogues indulging in a bit of day dreaming what I could do. I chose 10 new sorts of flowers I want to try (I don't need any new veg seeds this year as I have plenty) as Mr Fothergills has a buy 4 get a 5th free on all seed packets, plus £5 off orders at the moment. It meant that I got 10 pack of seeds for just £12 which is a bit of a bargain. Probably means I will have way too many plants, but I will enjoy it all thoroughly. I have bought Echinacia (so far I have had zero success with this), Chrysanthemum Snowland, Ageratum Red Sea, Morning Glory heavenly blue, Cornflower Blue Ball, Hollyhock Giant, Campanula, Geums and some Rudbeckia. The tax man has just sent me a substantial refund as I paid him far too much money last year, so I thought the least I could treat myself to was some seeds. My brother gave me the most wonderful Christmas present too this year: an electric heated propagator so I am very excited to try this out in a few months.
Now I will have the fun, over the next few weeks, of deciding where I will put the new plants, I will change my mind a dozen times and in the end they will probably go in new spots, but it is such fun experimenting. My brand new bed (the largest border in the garden so far) is, at the moment a quagmire of clay and manure with a few new perennials in there (and a small ornamental cherry tree) and so much of these new plants will be going in here. I will do more sweet peas this year as they are heavenly both in sight and smell, but I will choose these seeds another time.

My garden has gone from this:


to this, in just two years:


And from this:


to this:



So what will 2014 bring? Oh it is going to be such fun to find out.

21 comments:

  1. It will bring good things dan...good things

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  2. A heated propagater .. you lucky thing! Heres hoping for an early spring.
    x

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  3. sounds wonderful, best wishes!

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  4. Could you do a few close ups of the flowers with the names. Amateur gardener but love flowers. I live in Sri Lanka but have a property where it is considerably cooler than normal for this part of the world. Would love to try some of the more English kind of flowers!

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  5. You certainly improved that place a great deal! Best of luck for the 2014 gardening season.

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  6. You definitely have green fingers - the difference is amazing!

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  7. What a beautiful place to live and what a huge difference you have made to it. Good luck with your gardening plans and best wishes for 2014.

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  8. Dan, your garden looks lovely. I cant wait to see what you do with it next. loving the bean plants in the last picture

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  9. What lush gardens you've created, it must feel like paradise to walk out your door and see it all and enjoy the fragrance. And more to come in 2014! Wishing you a happy and fulfilling new year.

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  10. I love the before and after photos! I have some garden dreaming ahead this winter, too.

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  11. That is an amazing transformation in just 2 years :)

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  12. Mr Fothergill’s produce the highest quality seeds and garden products! Buy your seeds online and have them delivered to your door Mr Fothergill's

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  13. You`ve done wonders in that garden, so I`m sure you will have loads more exciting things growing there this coming season. Happy New Year!!

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  14. What a transformation in just 2 years. I shall look forward to reading about your adventures in the garden next year. It's great fun planning, isn't it.
    Love from Mum
    xx

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  15. Fabulous transformation. You must be so pleased with what you've achieved. Gardening is so good for the soul.

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  16. Wow thats amazing..well done..enjoy 2014
    sara

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  17. What a beautiful garden and so different from where you started. 2014 is going to be a good year I think ....
    KJ x

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  18. Wonderful transformation in the garden. If you end up with too many seedlings/plants take them to a carboot sale. They usually sell well there, expecially if marked up with details (and you are so organised). I am sure you are excited about the changes to your life in 2014?

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  19. Love your garden...cheers from an expat living under down under (Tasmania )

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  20. I'm just thinking, have you ever thought of swapping seeds ? You could have a look at my blog where I'm talking about the "Seeds of Love" exchange that will start tomorrow - or we could compare our list of seeds and see if there's anything we could swap (flowers or vegs). Interested ?

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