January/February

January frosts

We are a hardy bunch of gardeners but the sunshine has warmed us despite the frost! The garden beds look lovely in the sunshine.

Photographs show: Frosty lawn; Frosty grasses; Frosty euphorbia; Frosty witch hazel

Snowdrop weekend

Our Snowdrop Weekend at the end of January was a great success - on the Saturday morning we arrived to find people queueing at the Courtyard gate before the Museum opened. All weekend was busy with visitors admiring our Giant Snowdrop Company displays and buying stock for their own gardens from the Avon Bulbs stall. Galanthophile guests compared varieties and gave advice and encouragement to our own gardeners.

Photograph: Snowdrop weekend

February groundwork

The Storm Warning gave us time to move the terracotta pots of snowdrops from the auricula theatre, thank goodness. All the gardeners came in on the Monday after the storms, prepared for the worst, but in fact very little damage had been done inside the walled garden. So we got on with our spring-cleaning, tidying and weeding and took delight in the new flowers. With the lower risk of hard freezing we also refilled the water butts around the volunteer shed.

Photographs: Hellebores; Purple bed; water butts

Compost success

Geoff emptied the oldest of our three compost bins - what lovely, dark, organic compost it is! We celebrated that - and his recovery of three pairs of secateurs - with a hot drink, tucked away out of the wind.

Photographs: Compost bin; Compost ‘finds’!; Compost treasure; Compost celebrations

Pergola Prep

Sarah trimmed the fruit bushes and canes and tied them in to the pergola, using colour-matched hand-dyed MiP Gardening string.

Photograph: Colour match string

The long beds of the pergola work very hard for us. In preparation for this year's planting we spread six bags of Soil Association manure and topped it with some of our home-made and sifted compost. Meanwhile, Sue and Ruth untangled our rhubarb from the roots of the wisteria and replanted it with a dollop of manure and compost along the top steps.

Photograph: Pergola bed; Rhubarb