2012 - and Spring has Sprung ??????

Welcome to the new year at Scotsburn, and hopefully there will be  a lot going on this year, with more of the garden to clear, the veg patch to get a much larger and more permanent residence, a cut flower bed to be started up, more plants going into the long borders, a fruit bed to get up and running and more besides.
Anyway, today being my first day back at the garden since before Christmas, I took a wander round first thing to see what was what - and came across these harbingers of Spring (slightly early methinks !)

There are thousands of these, all over the garden, sticking their heads up for a look and three or four clumps in full flower already. There are also lots of the daffs having a peek as well but these should - hopefully - wait for a bit longer before producing their display.

Anyway, everything seemed to have survived the recent gales and storms, so it was on with the job. I began by cutting down the last of the herbaceous perennials in the long borders, dividing a clump of "Garden Original" Iris and moving a large scabious as I went.

After this I set about tidying up the climbing roses against the SF and WF walls. This job not only requires leather glowes, secateurs and telecopic pruners but also entails a trip along the top of the wall to remove the tallest branches  - and given that the top of the wall ain't flat (it's about 45 degrees), it can make you sweat a bit at times. But that's it done for now - no more wall clambering til April now.

Whilst I'm talking about the climbing roses, there is one still in flower - well it has one and a half blooms open but still has several fresh buds as well

After I had finished the climbing roses, I cut back the Rosa Rugosa in the small bed beside the gate. Having then had a chat with Sally, I retreived the cuttings from the compost heap and used them to plant up a small hedge between the box arch and the viburnum below the rose bed - I planted them a lot them at a short spacing as I want to be sure that enough root to make a decent barrier hedge.

I also ripped out the remaining Petit Posy plants. You may remember these - a cross between Kale and Sprouts - but in Sally's words, they were "disappointing", so out they came and I doubt they will be seen in the garden again.

Then I lifted some leeks and cut some PSB.

And I finished the day by starting into the apple tree pruning - this was started last year but the trees still need a bit of work to bring them back to their best.

So that was my first day back in 2012 - and instead of staring with the piccie from the potting shed, I'll finish with it. See ya next week