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.

15 deg in mid-November means that there’s still lots of colour, and pattern around. I must admit ‘colour and pattern’ is a bit of a loose theme for a #SixSaturday, but here it is…..

First up, there are still roses in flower, battling away to keep going and going. These ones last for months. I love their pretty little blooms, sadly they have no scent.

Rather than clearing a big patch of hosta, these have been left to decay away, producing a rather satisfying pattern as the stems melt away into the earth.

Some lovely autumn colour next, from iris foetidissima, a fairly plain and simple summer flowering iris, but at this time of year the seed heads are interesting a colourful.

Activity is calming down in the pond now. Spiky ‘water solidiers’ have sunk into the depths. Water lily is still in leaf, and a few local invaders are doing there thing. The pond will need an early winter clean out pretty soon, but we’ll wait until the leaf fall is nearly over.

Talking of leaves, this year has produced a rich variety of bright colour, that is now falling before it fades, leaving a multi-coloured lawn, and lots of promise for leaf-mould to come (once it’s all been raked up and put into the leaf holder).

Last but not least, some more pink…not-very-hardy geraniums are still outdoors in pots. This weekend looks like it might drop cold, so they will be moving into the greenhouse soon for their winter holiday.

That’s my #SixonSaturday this week, have a great weekend in the garden, looks like the weather will still be mild across most of the UK. 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.

I didn’t publish a blog last weekend, as I was privileged to experience glorious Autumn colours in the wonderful Scottish Borders. It has been a fabulous autumn in southern Scotland, so here’s a bonus image of Stobo Castle gardens before I even get to my #SixonSaturday for this week.

WOW! Whoever designed the garden is probably long-gone, but what a fabulous legacy! Stobo Castle is a spa hotel, but it doesn’t say anywhere that the garden is private, so I’d recommend a look if you’re near Peebles any time.

Now I’m back home and starting to wade through the vast arrays of collapsing border plants. But there’s still things to look at, little pieces of joy that make mid-November in the garden worth a look. First, still standing this year (because we’ve only had 1 frost) is my boisterous gunnera. Soon to collapse but, for now, fighting on.

To complement the green, here’s a bit of colour. I can’t quite decide whether this is wallflower is newly flowering, or if it’s been flowering all year. But I noticed it as I cleared a big tub of cosmos away. What a worker!

For my next little joy, I showed the flowers of clematis tangutica a few weeks ago. Always a late flowerer, and soon to be chopped, but now it is full of gorgeous seed heads. I’ll leave a bit longer as I’ve seen sparrows collecting these to line their winter roosting pockets.

This is the first year I have grown ammi, from seed. These promised to give that lovely floaty white thing, in mid-late summer. They have been at their best later than advertised, but I think they are worth it. I will try to sow the seeds earlier next year.

My final two are certainly, ‘wow still going’ blooms. The first is some kind of daisy-type plant, probably north American, maybe a Shasta Daisy? This year I did deadhead vigorously and a few of the plants were kind enough to deliver late flowers. Nice.

Last, and I know I’ve shown these recently, but what’s not to love? Calendula…..still at it. I remember a trip about 10 years ago trekking in Nepal in November, and they were growing there, so perhaps it’s not surprising that they manage eastern Scotland too.

That’s my #SixonSaturday this week, have a great weekend in the garden, looks like the weather will still be mild across most of the UK. 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.