As the end of January nears, life seems to have stalled. Winter is mild yet grey, and feels endless, our country is now in an unrecognisable mess. Urgghhh. Some cheer is called for. I got outside before the storm hit and focused on flowers for this week’s #SixonSaturday.

As in most winters, snowdrops are lovely and fairly short-flowering, so they will probably feature each week now as the winter rolls on. Mine are just coming into proper bloom.

Viburnum is a winter stalwart, doing its thing quietly. When you close in and look the tiny flowers form a forest of blooms.

Now for some colour, I started by sneaking into the greenhouse, where a couple of spells of sunshine have spurred geranium on to get the flowers pumping out. This intense saturated pink did cheer me up.

Back outside, I’m never sure whether to keep wallflowers, or replace them regularly as they do tend to get leggy. This one wants to stay.

With the #BigGardenBirdwatch this weekend, it will soon be time to start looking for those early pollinating insects too. With that in mind, I was thrilled to see the first bloom has arrived on pulmonaria. No bumble bees yet, but when they come, nectar will be waiting.

This is the week that witch hazel burst into bloom too, so this intricate, gorgeous little scented delight, forms my finale this week. What a lovely, LOVELY plant to bring winter joy, whatever the climatic or political weather.

That’s my #SixonSaturday this week. In times where trust is short, you can trust that nature will absorb and engage. Don’t forget to follow the crowd on twitter and via the web from links to the originator of #SixonSaturday, the Propagator himself. And join in this weekend, get on and do some citizen science with the #BigGardenBirdwatch here: https://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/birdwatch/

In January, bulbs start to poke up their noses and trees bud, signs of promise for the new season. Yet most of the gardening involves spreading mulch and shifting organic matter around the veg beds, not hugely photogenic. Before starting that, this week, I’ve taken the macro outside to zoom in on the little things that are going on. Here’s my #SixonSaturday

Although this has appeared recently, and it’s hard to miss with it’s pungent heavy sweet scent, the details of a sarcococcas are worthy of inspection.

In the greenhouse this season, I’m hoping to grow a fast crop of pak choi, before the slugs get going outdoors. After germination in the house on a warm windowsill, they are beginning to grow strongly in my unheated greenhouse.

It has been tricky to get those classic winter photos when there’s barely frost, but there was just enough gathered on tiny new phlomis leaves for a close-up, notice the geometric form on each particle of frost.

Most leaves in the garden now are old and rapidly turning into leaf mould for the new season. One or two are being carried away and upwards by new growth appearing.

One plant that plods ever on is evergreen ivy. Sometimes this plant is hard to love, every time I turn around it has grown through another flowerbed and into another tree. The greens it gives at this time of year are heartening though, here’s a miniture new leaf.

Snowdrops, they are still on their way, yet there are probably still only a dozen or so in flower. Trying to get close up and personal with them involves lying flat on the ground, but is worth it. Water droplets on these flowers reveal whole little worlds of interest.

That’s my #SixonSaturday this week. In times where trust is short, you can trust that nature will absorb and engage. Don’t forget to follow the crowd on twitter and via the web from links to the originator of #SixonSaturday, the Propagator himself.

My first week fully back at work since the end of year break, exhausting! Yet working mostly from home gives me time to notice the garden, and with oddly mild weather again, there are lots of things growing. Here’s my #SixonSaturday.

I’ve been taking the odd hour to do a spot of ground clearing, it really is time to do it, because when I do, little joys appear, right low down near the ground, like my very first snowdrop of the year.

Whilst the garden clearing is going on, I’ve been accompanied by a helper who gets a little more keen, and a little closer, every day. It’s now quite hard not to stand on him/her, although I think (s)he’s more vigilant than me, so probably won’t get squashed.

Whilst footling around in the earth and leaves, I found the promising buds of my favourite deep purple hellibore. Another week or two from flowering perhaps?

Moving into the 0 – 0.5m zone, sarcococcus are fruiting, and now flowering too, with the flowers producing the almost-too-rich, yet still-smells-in-cold-shade scent that I think I like.

Into the 2-3m zone for promising buds on my favourite shocking pink rhododendron. This won’t flower until May.

Look up to 3-4m, the apple trees are not yet in bud, it’s time to prune them. This one is a cooker, a tree that looks like it may have been planted when the house was built (about 210 years ago!). It’s trunks are variously cankered, yet most year’s it gives us month’s work of fruit for a sweet-sour juice. What a wonderful plant.

That’s my #SixonSaturday this week. Chin-up folks, take some time to explore what’s around you in the garden and do look up. Don’t forget to follow the crowd on twitter and via the web from links to the originator of #SixonSaturday, the Propagator himself.

Looking for genuine interest and enthusiasm in the garden in the first weeks of the year can be tough, but it was worth the effort this week…here are 6 promising things from the garden for our second January #SixonSaturday. The former Xmas-tree looks sad now, it was a great tree this year, a lovely cone shape, held its needles well. But all is not lost, it is awaiting it’s fate, soon to be chopped up and stored in a spare corner to be next winter’s ericaceous mulch (once I’ve spread this years and have some spare bags!).

Winter planting….a few tiny pansies didn’t take off in late Autumn, but here they come, and will be hastened in their journey by sitting on a south-facing step in the sunshine. A bit ragged, perhaps slightly nibbled, this is the start of many blooms to come.

In the greenhouse, a few winter edibles have shivered through the dark nights and now (thankfully) freezing days. With the morning light behind it, a red chard leaf looks luscious and luminous, maybe another month before it joins us for dinner.

There is promise too, in the soft and fluffy buds of a stellata magnolia. A slow growing shrub, worth the wait, as it is well established now, will produce a flush of flower in February.

This week’s prize for most surprising garden find are little clusters of flowers on a rather scraggy ceanothus. This one likes it hot, so not sure how long the flowers will last with a -3 deg C night predicted.

Last but not least this week, it’s worth looking up too, to see how lovely hazel catkins look, when set against a cold blue winter sky.

That’s my #SixonSaturday this week. Chin-up folks, lots of us feel a bit limp and sad in January, take some time to explore what’s around you in the garden. Don’t forget to follow the crowd on twitter and via the web from links to the originator of #SixonSaturday, the Propagator himself.

My first #SixonSaturday of the year is a little late as a software glitch wiped all trace of the blog I’d prepared on 31st…ah well, start a new year afresh. This week, I’m making the most of the crazy mild weather to show some late garden activity, and some early. First this week, hypericum is still looking green and lush and showing off it’s red berries.

I can’t remember a January with ferns still standing, but here we have one. I’m sure the January frosts will take it at some point, but for now, the colour blend from green to yellow and brown is working for me.

Perhaps a bit more seasonal, an array of tall grasses near the pond look good with fresh raindrops clothing them.

And now for new growth. A mild winter so far, and wet, provides optimal conditions for the lawn to grow a thick carpet of moss. The lawn is far too big to worry about ridding the place of moss, so we enjoy a springy green carpet for most of the year. Looks lush just now.

January is alwasy good for hellebore and the first few are pushing their flowers out cheerfully. I look forward to seeing more soon (though may need to clear the beds more to find them all).

Last…….something that should not be happening, a cute mini primula is going for it, pushing out a ring of flowers and another set of buds. A good omen for 2022? let’s hope so.

That’s it for me this week. Happy New Year. Wishing you all lush growth and lots of colour. Don’t forget to follow the crowd on twitter and via the web from links to the originator of #SixonSaturday, the Propagator himself.

A Xmas #SixonSaturday, and the last one of the year, there has to be a bright and baubly theme this week. All shots were taken on a not-so-recent sunny day, it has been a dark and dreich period around the solstice this year.

I’ve gone for the best first this. My home made, garden foraged front door wreath. I’m pretty pleased with the finished item this year.

And for the rest, I’ve chosen bright and cheerful, colourful baubly things, all from the garden in the last week or so. What’s more to say at Xmas?

Except this last one…..from the windowsill….unusually we HAVE got Xmas cactus doing the right thing at the right time.

That’s it for me this week. Happy Xmas. Don’t forget to follow the crowd on twitter and via the web from links to the originator of #SixonSaturday, the Propagator himself.

With our Scottish Govt now giving it’s soon-to-be-traditional Xmas message, ‘stay at home if you can’, when I’m not fixed to my home-office screen, there’s always the garden. In this weekend that sits closest to the shortest day, it can be hard to find the motivation to get into the garden, with long shadows even at midday. I managed, and for my #SixonSaturday this week I’m embracing mostly the greens that fight on through the dark.

First, a recent cold morning made me notice a few beads of frost clinging to an intriguing moss-and-lichen combination. The more you look the more intricate the scene nestling in the top of the garden wall.

Having battled on for about 9 solid months, nasturtium flowers have finally been chilled out of existence, but the seeds remain, gleaming green in the sunshine, soon to be harvested for sowing in, I hope, a few short weeks.

Except for the very harshest winters, rosemary grows (and sometimes flowers), right through the year. I think it benefits from being in a shallow, dry, bed, there’s not too much sogginess. Some fresh tips of this one will be used to season next weekend’s big roast (goose, if the mail-order fresh-from-farm delivery works out….fingers crossed).

Sometimes, plants show extraordinary resilience. This is campanula, growing a good 2m, tucked into a niche in a vertical wall, and still delivering a few flowers despite the damp and the dark.

A few years ago I received a tree-heather as a gift. At the time it looked like a rather boring little shrub. In the depths of the dark days, I do now find the bright lime stems give a cheery glow.

At 56.3 deg north, I do find my environment SO DARK at this time of year. The upside is that you can have a long lie-in, then still get up in time for sunrise over the garden. This was about 9am, Friday 17th December: this is what we mean by the ‘dark midwinter’.

That’s it for me this week. This time next week is you-know-what….Stay safe, keep yourself and others safe by wearing a mask, and don’t forget to follow the crowd on twitter and via the web from links to the originator of #SixonSaturday, the Propagator himself.

It’s turning into another difficult winter, so for my #SixonSaturday this week I’ve had a good mooch around the garden for things that give me hope, joy, and that feeling of ‘hang in there’. First up, at this time of year a large climbing hydrangea loses it’s leaves and reveals just how much it’s been a haven for wildlife. This year it seems to have become a bird-nest village, with 6 nests showing up, Here’s the lowest one. I’m not sure what it is, perhaps a robin, with a finger-length diameter and a beautiful mossy cover. A wonderful piece of natural engineering.

Some colour next. I let a number of large chilli plants sit in the greenhouse. there have been enough sunny days, somehow, to ripen up the fruit on this beautiful Alberto Rocoto (also called Locoto). These fruit are BIG, about the length of my thumb, with black seeds. If you’re in the Uk, you can try them from realseeds.co.uk. A great plant, that CAN (though it’s tricky) overwinter in a cool room in the house. Delicious, reliably hot without blowing your head off, and very pretty indeed.

There has been quite a winter of weather in the last couple of weeks: 2 huge storms, some ice, some snow, yet calendula are still showing me the joy of their orange flowers. These are tough little plants. I did once see a huge patch, in November, on a farm about 2 days walk from Annapurna Basecamp (Nepal), so I guess Fife should be not much of a challenge for them.

This next plant has a story attached. I love a good evergreen. I know this one as ‘New Zealand Holly’. It IS a native of NZ. I picked up a few little seedlings some years ago an a bike ride on a remote peninsula in the far northwest of Scotland (just northwest of the Summer Isles, for those keen on detail). We passed a number of tiny hamlets and single homes, all with huge shrubs with bright white flowers. A very old lady at a little cafe explained that a visitor had come, in the 1970’s, from the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, to talk about plants and give a few away. Hence this remote spot, sheltered by the Gulf Stream, hosts many of these ‘semi-hardy’ plants. She gave me 5 little seedlings and today I have a couple in the garden, and one that winters in the greenhouse. I love the history.

Despite the fact that we’re now less than 2 weeks from the solstice (BRING IT ON), I have a few hardy veg slugging it out. Chard is still delivering, though some of the stems are now cold- and wind-battered, they are still good for a stir-fry or just steamed.

Last this week, my absolutely wonderful hope and joy find……a lemon tree has been doing it’s best in my greenhouse for a couple of years. It often flowers, but they always fall. Until NOW….I have a lemon…YAYYYY. Perhaps this one will feature in our festive gin-n-tonic.

That’s it for me this week. Fortunately, my garden is big enough that there are many weeks of clearing to do before thinking about spring (not to mention a few more bulbs that really do need planting this weekend). That’ll keep me busy through whatever winter we have to face this year. Stay safe, keep yourself and others safe by wearing a mask, and don’t forget to follow the crowd on twitter and via the web from links to the originator of #SixonSaturday, the Propagator himself.

The first #SixonSaturday of winter, so some wintery scenes for my Six this week. Thankfully, we’re based on the south slope of a hill, nicely protected from the big storm last weekend, just lost a few tree branches. But I was a little surprised to see November snow a couple of days later. Made for some nice pics of the garden though, so here goes. Clematis seed heads have featured before on my blog, but perhaps not so cute as this, each one wearing a little wooly snow hat.

There are many perennials still on show in the big border, too, echinops standing tall despite the storm and also sporting fluffy snow caps.

There have been a number of days in this last week when the pond has taken on it’s winter jacket…a fair covering of ice, with green leaves of the water lily still hanging on underneath.

Next to the pond is my December gunnera. I think this must be the first year in the 16 I’ve been here that some of the leaves have managed to stay standing into December…they are just about hanging on. The horticultural advice for this plant is to cover with a number of the leaves to protect from frost. Most years I have to hack half a dozen new buds of this specimen in spring to stop it romping further down the garden, so it gets treated fairly harshly to keep it in check.

I’ll finish this week with a couple of winter highlights. Blackbirds are slowly finishing off the cotoneaster berries: there are still a fe left to bring colour and cheer.

Perhaps a little early, pieris is beginning to bud. This one almost never produces fresh red leaves, it’s looking like it wont this year either, but the flowers will come in just a few more weeks.

That’s my #SixonSaturday this week, have a great weekend in the garden, if you can get out into the weather. Stay safe, keep yourself and others safe by following the science and wearing a mask, and don’t forget to follow the crowd on twitter and via the web from links to the originator of #SixonSaturday, the Propagator himself.

It should be late autumn, but winter seems to have arrived: storm Arwen is bashing about outside (Friday evening), I’m in bed with my first heavy cold in 2 years, and I’m hoping to get this blog up in case we get power cuts later….very high winds and a sprinkling of snow, I think the leaves will be gone by Sunday. It seems apt to make this week’s #SixonSaturday theme be the turn of another season, and plants that are defying that turn. I managed to get out to grab a few photos this morning, while it was calm and sunny. I’ll start with some survivors. A yellow buddleja always does me proud feeding the last pollinating insects, I think it’s beaten them to the end of season this year.

I cleared some leaves away from the veg bed and found a few wonderfully colourful radicchio underneath. Fabulous colour, if I can keep the wet leaves off, they will end up in a mushroom-radicchio lasagne later this weekend.

There has been a fair bit of cool dry weather lately. I think that might be why this fern is decaying with a delicate colour-fade this year, quite different from the usual frost-driven brown mush. Worth contemplating for a while….will be gone in this storm…

Until perennial cornflower started doing it’s own thing by seeding itself in top spots, I didn’t realise it would flower into winter. This one was chopped back hard in September and has rewarded me with a couple more cheerful blooms.

I grow a diminutive small-leaved hebe that nicely fills part of a ‘low maintenance’ border. It very seldom flowers, but it does provide cheerful ever-green all year. Dry, warm, and not-too-wet autumn seems to be suitable weather, it’s decided to flower.

It took me many year to realise I was growing Himalyan honeysuckle. This plant loves dry, shady corners of my hillside garden, pops up often, and is flowering away now. It has a certain ‘waterfall’ kind of elegance, and good strong colour.

That’s my #SixonSaturday this week, have a great weekend in the garden, if you can get out into the weather. Stay safe, keep yourself and others safe by following the science and wearing a mask, and don’t forget to follow the crowd on twitter and via the web from links to the originator of #SixonSaturday, the Propagator himself.