Wild at heart

Getting tunnels and greenhouses ready for the new season..... wonderful illustration of the vitality of Nature's bounty, a few relatively feeble cultivated salads survived the icy blast, and right next to them a ready to eat mesclun of vitamins.

dandelion, chickweed, dead nettle

Plenty more plants outside, including yarrow,  plantain, daisies, a plateful of spring tonic!

evening primrose, nettle, nipplewort

March minimalism

I'm often asked, usually by city visitors, "what's it like in Winter?". 

Generally this means the difficult-to-imagine contrast to summer's opulence of garden profusion, and a house full of guests.  

When is 'winter', especially with climate change fluctuations?!

 The colder it is, there is more sculptural embelishment of a leaf-less landscape with snow and ice. 

snowy Sun Garden

I find the most reduced, naked time of year is just now. Snowdrops, crocusses, even first daffodils have flowered, aswell as hazels and plenty other delicate and subtle blooms...yet it's as though the energy recoils, compresses and retracts, to erupt  in an explosion of growth, flowering, perfume and song in just the next couple of weeks. 

Holding breath....