Spring Gardening.

Well here I was thinking I might get out into the garden this weekend to begin clearing and preparing for our Spring planting. In my book there is nothing nicer than seeing February arrive and know the lighter  nights are now definitely on their way, and now is the time to pull on my lovely wellies and go and stomp around the garden in the fresh air seeing what needs my attention. Well I say my attention, what I actually mean is I will go and look and come back an tell my long suffering husband!

My domain is the greenhouses. I love to go into them and start clearing out the old tomato plants and preparing the soil for the new ones. Then I pour over the seed catalogues that arrive and drop into the letterbox. The photographs always inspire me to want to do bigger and better, and I do start off with really, really good intentions. Some years I do really well and we have an abundant harvest and others... Well let's just say I am not naturally green fingered and sometimes it does not go quite to plan.
 My dear parents are keen gardeners and have always managed to grow beautiful vegetables. Now even in their eighties they are still able to grow a lovely crop of edible delights.
But I am still in the positive "this is going to be the year" mode, full of enthusiasm and excited at the thought of all those seeds sprouting and pushing their way up towards the sunshine so that in the lovely warmth of the summer I can wander down the garden trug  in hand and go and collect the ingredients for that nights supper.

The one thing I do love is my garden tools. They have to be wooden handled and stainless steel. Don't ask me why, but I cannot resist them when I see them in the shops. Maybe they have an old fashioned appeal about them, of times past when life was lived at a much slower pace. But whatever it is my husband thinks it's a bit of a fetish. That's why when we saw the Sophie Conran collection of
gardening equipment I thought We need those in the shop. My favorite is the compost scoop. A lovely wood handle with a stainless steel scoop on the end just perfect for pushing into a new bag of compost and filling my trays, seems to make the job so much easier! But of course I couldn't stop there I needed the full set, trowel and fork,...... I make no apologies!

Time to Reflect

I always like January. I think it's something to do with new beginnings, a bit like when I was at school I loved the new term in September when we were given new books, clean white crisp pages  just waiting to be written on. That's how I feel about the new year, a blank slate, pages waiting to be filled.

These cold crisp days which are beginning very slowly to stretch out into lighter evenings help us to see that  Spring is slowly waking up, stretching and beginning to push up through the frozen ground.

Walking around the garden at home the snowdrops are carpeting the ground under the cherry trees.
We see Hyacinths are coming through on the markets, their beautiful scent filling the house with their fragrance. Early daffodils and tulips, brighten even the darkest corner, I love jugs full of these little beauties dotted throughout the house giving such cheer.

The busyness of the festive season is over, the New Year is quieter, it gives us an opportunity for some peace and tranquility,a time to reflect, looking forward to new challenges. Taking forward what really worked last year and learning to leave behind that which didn't. The one thing I've learnt about working in The Arbour is you don't know what's going to come through the door on any given day, so you have to learn to go with the flow, that can be quite challenging for someone who usually likes two weeks advanced notice, but it does keep each day unique. A number of customers have asked if we will do some more courses following our successful wreath making ones, I definitely think some more courses are on the agenda, so watch this space, more news on that Later.  

As I said the other day we are expecting a delivery sometime this week of new stock which is always exciting. I love Spring colours and I know we have ordered some lovely planters in these lovely fresh colours, can't wait to see them planted up or filled with the newest blooms.  I was delighted to find moss shaped rabbit wreaths- definitely having one of them for my front door at Easter! So for now here's a taster of some of our new range, I will hopefully be able to post some more pictures on all theses lovely new goodies next week.

So Excited

So excited, we have a new shipment of goodies arriving this week. It will be like Christmas all over again!

On these dark grey days of winter, when the sun stays very low slung in the sky and evening seems to set in very early it is wonderful to see nosing their way up through the frozen hard earth little spikes of green, heralding the fact that Spring is on it's way.

 Galanthus or snowdrops as they are more commonly known, carpet the ground from January till April. The crisp, clean, white petals lie in stark contrast to the dark boughs and red berries in the hedgerows of the winter months.

As Winter begins to recede and like sleepy bears we begin to come out of hibernation and get back outside its fun to go on a snowdrop walk.  There is something quintessentially English about seeing masses of snowdrops in a Churchyard or woodlands. Many country estates and gardens open early just so the public can go and partake of this beautiful sight. Traditionally, churchyards had many snowdrops planted so that there would be a good supply of flowers for Candlemas On the 2nd of Feb. Christmas greenery was taken down and replaced by jugs full of these little beauties.

So while we wait for more flowers to put in an appearance why not go out and gather some of these lovely little gems, pop them in a small glass vase and place them some where, where you will see them, so that each time you do they will make you smile.