What's happening in your garden right now? Take a picture and share it on twitter using #mygardenrightnow. Let the world see your garden as it is today, and see how it compares to everyone else's.
This weekend I am taking part in the #mygardenrightnow project, launched on twitter by Michelle Chapman of the Veg Plotting Blog. The idea is to take a picture of your garden this weekend, and by sharing it via twitter, and our blogs, to create a collection of images that provide a snapshot of life in gardens across the country, or even the world.
Its a great idea and I'm taking part. I like to think that I have managed to create a garden which contains plenty of interest during the winter months, using interesting structural plants, evergreens, winter flowering shrubs and other features. Even so, this time of year tends to be all about potential, and that was certainly the theme that developed as I wandered through the garden at 9am this morning.
Those winter flowering shrubs like the witch hazel are now past their prime. Crocuses and daffodils are in full bloom, splashing bursts of colour around the garden. But they will soon fade and disappear again, their job done, having reassured us that winter was coming to an end by emerging without notice from the ground, and cheered us all up with their colourful display against dark grey skies.
Meanwhile, most of the plants that we will be enjoying through spring and summer have barely got started. By early May, the garden will have flourished and filled with foliage and flowers. Various specimens will come and go, but the beds and borders will continue to flourish and expand until at least the end of September. Trees will come into leaf and appear to expand to fill a larger segment of the sky than they do at present. But all that is to come.
So what we see in #mygardenrightnow is potential. The magnolia bud forming, almost ready to delight, but not for a week or two yet. The first few anemone blanda opening under the trees, but with many more to follow soon. And these remind us that the rest of the garden will follow suit. I remember what it looked like in the middle of last summer, and these signs of potential give me the confidence to look forward to it all happening again. The garden rarely disappoints in that sense. The garden comes back to life to reward our perseverance and patience over winter.
There is also, of course, some work to do. The recent storms have blown all sorts of debris into the stream that flows through the bottom of our garden. Later I will don my wellies and wade in to clear out the various items that have become lodged between our stepping stones, which are themselves temporarily submerged by the additional rainfall that has worked its way down from the mountain.
Those winter flowering shrubs like the witch hazel are now past their prime. Crocuses and daffodils are in full bloom, splashing bursts of colour around the garden. But they will soon fade and disappear again, their job done, having reassured us that winter was coming to an end by emerging without notice from the ground, and cheered us all up with their colourful display against dark grey skies.
 |
| Anemone blanda |
So what we see in #mygardenrightnow is potential. The magnolia bud forming, almost ready to delight, but not for a week or two yet. The first few anemone blanda opening under the trees, but with many more to follow soon. And these remind us that the rest of the garden will follow suit. I remember what it looked like in the middle of last summer, and these signs of potential give me the confidence to look forward to it all happening again. The garden rarely disappoints in that sense. The garden comes back to life to reward our perseverance and patience over winter.
There is also, of course, some work to do. The recent storms have blown all sorts of debris into the stream that flows through the bottom of our garden. Later I will don my wellies and wade in to clear out the various items that have become lodged between our stepping stones, which are themselves temporarily submerged by the additional rainfall that has worked its way down from the mountain.
Well that's #mygardenrightnow, I can't wait to see everyone else's.