The 4th Saturday in January, but not the last! This month really does drag on. We’re out of the cold snap now, and back into full blown easterly rain storms…..seems endless. I resorted to a quick flip round the garden in the rain, and a breather in the greenhouse. This week I therefore bring you a fairly quickly gathered #SixOnSaturday

I was please to see some veggies surviving the winter….so far. There are one or two broccoli plants leafing up again. Not sure if they will offer flower shoots, but the greens will work in a soup or stir fry.

And in a different section of my veg beds, chard is still going. Though the leaves seem to have become a home to an array of tiny slugs. Hence the holes!

In the greenhouse, I have not been able to resist the urge to start planting seeds. Once germinated in the house, I’m putting asian-veg seedlings into the greenhouse. They will probably end-up being a greenhouse spring veg crop. These are pak-choi. very heartening to see new life coming on, even on a rain-soaked January day.

My faithful lemon tree is also wintering in the greenhouse. It looks like another fruit is almost ready. There’s nothing quite like a cheeky weekend gin and tonic, with home grown lemon slice.

Any finally, and certainly more seasonally, my favourite hellebore is just coming into flower. You really have to get down low to appreciate the lovely colour and shiny opening flowers.

Last, snowdrops are coming. Here are the first few. I’d better get out into the grime this weekend and clear flower beds where there might be other snowdrops coming through.

There we go, another January #SixOnSaturday. I’m hanging in there, hope you are too. Thanks to those leaving comments on the blog. Join in with our #SixOnSaturday thoughts and images. All you need to do is find 6 things in your garden to show us. Then post on social, or add a link at Jim’s blog below. For regulars, our organiser is Jim at https://gardenruminations.co.uk/. And I’m on mastodon @julie3dharris@mastodon.scot

Mid-January, and already it is really noticeable, on a non-cloudy day, that the nights are drawing out. It wasn’t fully dark until 4.30pm yesterday: wonderful! yet it is cold. On Friday we had freezing fog for much of the day. Although a bit miserable, it brings out some beautiful garden detail, that I’m going to share with you this week for #SixOnSaturday.

Buds and stem look great with a little winter frosting. For example, here is a recently pruned rose stem.

Magnolia stellata have a long way to go before flowering, but holds the frost nicely in the mean time.

Garden objects can also be enhanced by frost. The markings on the surface of the 18th Century sundial that sits in my garden are really brought out by the frost. We think this is a ‘wedding sundial’, celebrating the wedding of ‘J & W’ in the year 1785!

Even the lawn looks interesting on a frosty morning. Don’t judge us, yes there is MUCH more moss than grass in our lawn, a hazard of the local conditions. It makes for a springy surface in summer.

Seed heads look great too. I have a few heads of fennel seeds left standing. These should be harvested for use in the kitchen, I’d better get to that before they fall off the plant.

Last, but very much not least, the seed head of phlomis looks great. The first picks out the tiny detail in such a beautiful way.

I hope you enjoyed this week’s #SixOnSaturday. These dark days are cold, but the light is coming back, as it always does.
Thanks to those leaving comments on the blog. Join in with our #SixOnSaturday thoughts and images. All you need to do is find 6 things in your garden to show us. Then post on social, or add a link at Jim’s blog below. For regulars, our organiser is Jim at https://gardenruminations.co.uk/. And I’m on mastodon @julie3dharris@mastodon.scot

Storm Goretti swept through the UK at the end of this week. We were well north of it, getting just a sprinkling of snow, and a fair bit of ice. 1 DegC daytime high temperatures, much warmer than down in the middle of England! It has been hard to motivate myself to get out there and looks for signs of life in the garden. Thank goodness for evergreen shrubs. These, and a few other things, will make up this week’s #SixOnSaturday.

This is a lovely time of year to enjoy the tiny flowers of viburnum. A few grow on stems long enough to bring into the house for vase, and we then enjoy a heavy sweet scent.

Left over from last year, in a bed still waiting to be cleared, last year’s teasel seed are always worth a closer look.

I wonder — it does look like some of this chard might make it through the freeze, and later onto the dinner table. For now, it’s a bright green patch reminding me of a vegetable season to come.

Another of those shrubs that I wonder why I grow in summer. Now I remember, it’s to keep me going in the depth of winter. This one is so bright, I’m not certain that I love it. Skimmia Japonica, in all it’s pinkness!

If it wasn’t so cold, I’d be pruning apple trees as the buds are now starting to form. Hoping for a slightly more relaxed season in 2026 (this year we STILL have cookers left, keeping cool in a tub in a corner of the garden).

And finally, this is a winter shrub I know I love. Those tiny little flowers falling in soft orange layers, pieris is coming into its best time of year.

I hope you enjoyed this week’s #SixOnSaturday. These dark days before the garden stirs, it can be hard to keep going. Spring WILL come, this dark cold time will pass.
Thanks to those leaving comments on the blog. Join in with our #SixOnSaturday thoughts and images. All you need to do is find 6 things in your garden to show us. Then post on social, or add a link at Jim’s blog below. For regulars, our organiser is Jim at https://gardenruminations.co.uk/. And I’m on mastodon @julie3dharris@mastodon.scot

Happy New Year. 2026 already? I remember the millennium almost like it was yesterday, how fast the days and years pass. Thinking back to 2025, there were not too many gardening triumphs, it was a year of recuperation and just about managing the garden. I hope this year there will be a bit more action. Things are happening, despite the winter chill that has finally arrived. Here is my first #SixonSaturday of 2026.

First up, I waved the old year goodbye while viewing a wonderful Hogmanay sunset through the skeletal apple trees at the west end of my garden.

This New Year has finally brought some winter weather. Looks like we’l have daytime high’s hovering around 0-3 degC for at least a week or so. The garden needs it, we can do with some pests around here being frozen (not least the deer ticks in the local woods). It also brings some wonderful sunshine and intriguing garden textures. The pattern of ice frozen onto the pond is an excellent example.

I wonder if the wallflower buds will make it through the cold snap? I hope so. This one is looking good, it gets morning sun, fingers crossed. This is a great variety, with oddly multicoloured buds — they tend to open into streaked yellow-red or orange flowers.

What keeps going all year and just hangs around in a pot waiting all winter? Sempervivum of course. Lovely colour and texture, this should sit through winter outdoors.

Just blooming for the New Year, sarcococcus. Deep green leaves and tiny white flowers with an almost pungent lily-like scent. This shrub lurks in the shadiest spot in the garden all year, then bursts forth while other plants are resting.

And finally, another January favourite, hellebore are starting. These first ones need to be looked for. The lime green flowers are beautiful, but they don’t catch the eye in the garden unless one looks for them. Lovely form and colour.

I’m looking forward to lots of lovely colour, texture, weather, scent, and, initially, clearing the garden, in 2026. And stopping to look and enjoy sometimes. I hope you are too.

Thanks to those leaving comments on the blog. Join in with our #SixOnSaturday thoughts and images. All you need to do is find 6 things in your garden to show us. Then post on social, or add a link at Jim’s blog below. For regulars, our organiser is Jim at https://gardenruminations.co.uk/. And I’m on mastodon @julie3dharris@mastodon.scot