Kitchen Garden Forum

Had a stroll round the garden yesterday and had the following in flower:
Daffs
Luecojum (?)
Vinca
Green Hellebore
And a couple of roses; Compassion and Alberic Barbier

Also spotted a bit of wild pink campion that had popped up under a shrub.

Seems pretty much the usual for this time of year, daffs are an early clump that come out in December every year.

What have you got in your gardens?

What have you got in your gardens?

This morning ....... A quagmire

A very nice cauliflower, does that count....

OH if we are not careful MW will give us both cauliflower ears

Might have a look later, I know there is some nice Jasmine. 55.9mm of rain yesterday so didn't venture out apart from feeding the birds. Got to go and look at a bit of a landslide later where some of our internet ducting has been exposed, still working though. Nothing compared with what many poor folk have suffered.

I have wild cyclamen, a couple of hellebores, winter heather, a couple of primroses, chaenomonoles in full flower, some flowering strawberries and a couple wonderful Daphne shrubs which are still seducing occasional bees who are brave enough to venture out.
You have to look around to find them though. The overall impression is damp soddenness . Just glad we managed to get the grass cut last week

I'm going down to the plot shortly I think ill take my chest waders, most of my parsnips have rotted in the ground I think it's the result of 2 months of torrential rain

Motherwoman ...or anybody else. Is there a name for a specific variety of early flowering daffodil or is it just luck that some flower early because they are in a particularly sheltered and warm environment? I always think it would be rather nice to have just one brave early clump somewhere as an early harbinger of Spring. I have seen early ones around in mild winters in verges or peoples gardens but have never know whether they are specific early varieties or it's just luck because often there are other daffodils nearby which haven't even poked their shoots through the soil.

Quick thought is February Gold but I think there are others.

Early Sensation is a good early one.....as long as they haven't changed it's name.

Feel for you poor souls with quagmires. Cauliflower technically OK....

Daffs at this time of year are early varieties. If you check out the catalogues you'll find they generally list them in order of flowering. Although warm weather helps to bring them forward, not by that much.

My quagmire just has dog paw prints and occasional doggy "decorations" - regularly removed.

Glad you prompted me to survey the garden, came across a group of Long Tailed Tits and (a first for me in the garden) a Goldcrest. Back to the flowers, Pulmonaria, Geum, Hellebores, Candytuft, Aconite and shrubs Jasmine, Daphne, Winter Honeysuckle, Fuchsia, Mahonia, Garrya, Heathers and not least the delicate little Omphalodes.



I guess Clive will be along with his exotic list from the big house later.

I think I need a flower I.d book...... I'm ok when it comes to veg but my knowledge of flowers is terrible ... Ok with daffodiles which I've seen a few of.

We regularly get a large gang of long tail tits in the garden and interestingly there is almost always a goldcrest with them. They're such a friendly and inquisitive little bird - at least hanging around with long tailed tits they're always guaranteed company!

A few flowers in the garden, but everything looks rather damp and dreary. On Saturday the village was cut off by floods for quite a few hours and some cars which tried to cross them still sit at the roadside, presumably waiting to dry out!

The most numerous birds at the moment are the goldfinches, often more than a dozen at one time. And the tits usually come in a mixed flock, blue, great, coal and long-tailed tits, and yesterday we even had another tit, though I can't make my mind up whether it was a willow tit (which we do see very occasionally) or marsh tit (which I have never recorded). I make my own fat blocks from suet, lard and ground peanuts and dried mealworms and the other day there was a great spotted woodpecker feeding on it on one side and a tiny goldcrest on the other! Siskins and reed buntings have arrived but no bramblings yet.