Keeping Warm in Winter

birdbox-winter

It is too cold to venture out in my garden, other than to feed the birds. I’ve just done that, and on the way back I grabbed a few things from the greenhouse to bring indoors: my garden journal, the box of empty packets of seeds from last year and my plant label collection – this should keep me busy through the next few days’ cold spell.

filingseedsFirstly, I need to organise my box of last year’s seed packets and check those that have any left over are sealed and stored for spring sowing. Any that I don’t want I will give away or sow for plant sales. At the same time I will make notes on any I have not ordered yet for the year ahead.

Then I’m going to clean all the plant labels and file them, labels-to-cleanalong with ones from previous years, under ‘shrubs’, ‘bulbs’, ‘perennials’ etc., so that I have an up to date record of what is in the garden – essential for labelling photographs correctly for libraries. This also gives me the opportunity to remove any labels of plants I know I have lost over the past year, and put in my wish list file if I want them back, or throw away if not.

wtdin-winterFinally I will turn to my garden journal to make notes of changes in planting plans, garden-bonesand then I will spend the next few weeks working on the overall look of the garden and the changes I need to make this year. My friend Ruth is a clever garden designer, and she has made some good suggestions and provided me with a couple of lovely sketches that I can think about while the bare bones of the garden are in clear view.

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