The middle of the month and there is a beautiful clear blue sky although the gravel in the courtyard still retains a sprinkling of frost on the north side of the barn. The temperature is 1 centigrade but the ground is frozen hard, as is the pond. Looking round the garden I can see plenty of signs of frost damage and blighted growth due to the chilly conditions following last months heavy and prolonged snowy weather. In the courtyard beds, the early snowdrops are flowering but the oriental hellebores are only just pushing their fresh new shoots and flowers buds above ground; only the foetida hellebore is in full bud and about to burst into blossom. Looking at my notes, this is much later than last year. There are no flowers on the ungularis iris and the only other colour is from a few early purple crocuses beside the driveway. Some green shoots of early narcissus and blue bells are showing, but that is all.I have a new Witch Hazel which is flowering with its feathery, yellow spindles on the terrace and down in the woods the bright red fungi has appeared again, but by no means as prolifically as last year. My lovely mimosa by the kitchen door is barely hanging on to life: the upper shoots are dead but the base is still alive. Lets hope this is corresponds to what I have heard about this species, that it can be cut back by a sharp frost, but will spring to life again with the growing warmth. The prostate rosemary in the Mediterranean bed also looks very sorry for itself, virtually frosted to a crisp, but I hope it will pull through. The pheasants grass also is very dry, as are the diarama by the pond … these were always a bit of a risk. Many of the rhododendrons have yellow leaves although they are covered in buds. It is hard to imagine that spring is just round the corner looking at the garden now, although snow is forecast next week…
A new report has shown that Spring is arriving earlier each year …now it is nine days ahead of fifty years ago on average, but I guess there are always variations to this general trend since this is certainly not the case in Green Valley. I already have some trays of seeds, the diathus ‘Siberian blue’ which failed to be the correct colour last year; some sensitive plants, a form of mimosa, and a variety of herbs for the new herb bed. The fields around the house are empty of livestock but Cous cous is fine and there are plenty of birds on the bird table.