My Garden Journal 2022 – January

So we move into another year, 2022, and we are still stuck with the pandemic which has gone on now for far too long. Thank goodness for our lovely garden which keeps us both busy and sane.

Here are my pages of my garden journal for January 2022.

On the first page for the new year I wrote, “The new year, 2022, began as 2021 left off, cold biting strong winds and some days of continuous rain. Not an easy month for gardeners but with appropriate clothing we carried on. We have been re-vamping some of our garden sculptures, tidying and top-dressing borders. Ian helped by planting new plants including new rose bushes. We have started clearing our fern garden in readiness for replacing the fence panels that back it”.

Below I shared photos of us getting on with some of these tasks.

The two pictures below show our resin and fabric sculpture called ‘Amber’ after I had revamped her somewhat and given her fresh paint.

Turning over to the next double page spread I featured our pittosporum and opposite ferns.

Concerning pittosporums I noted, “Early in the year, late on in the winter, foliage takes on a much more important, central role in our garden with such wide variety of shape, texture, colour and variegation. Shrubs such as those in the pittosporum family look beautiful all the rest of the year too. They present as such elegantly shaped shrubs.”

Below I shared photos of some of our pittosporums.

When discussing ferns I noted, “We grow dozens of different ferns throughout our garden and they provide huge variety in foliage, shape, size, structure and texture. Here are a few of our evergreen ones which add so much to several of our borders, a few in sun, some in part shade and others in full shade.”

Then I showed a selection of my photos of just a few of our many ferns.

Onto the next double page spread I looked at an achillea called ‘Paprika’ and wrote, “Some summer-flowering herbaceous perennials continue to give patches of colour well into the winter months. our Achillea milliflora ‘Paprika’, rich red in the late summer months, mostly turn to a deep ginger and dark sienna browns with highlights of magenta, blues and reddish-brown.” I then shared a a sketch I did using inks and a glass pen.

On the page opposite I spoke of the way or occasional frosts caught the evergreen foliage and dried seed heads and a grass.

I noted, ” The middle of the month brought clear night-time skies and early morning frosts. Days such as these are special in our garden as we leave dried grasses and perennials to catch the frost. These plants are also used by insects which overwinter within them too.” I added a selection of my frosty morning photos.

On the next double page spread I considered winter flowering shrubs and the effect of the low rays of winter light. Concerning winter flowering shrubs I wrote, “Most winter flowering shrubs are scented, and their scent tends to be stronger than scented shrubs from any other season. There are far fewer pollinators around in winter so shrubs need to work harder to attract them. We love these flowering shrubs too! Daphne, viburnum, sarcococca, cornus, hamamelis, clematis, mahonia, salix, ………”

On the opposite page I noted, “The rays of the winter sun cross our garden from a low angle so are effective spotlights, highlighting foliage and flowers.”

I then shared photos of the light catching our plants.

My last page for January concerned us working hard replacing six broken fence panels and I shared photos of our endeavours. I wrote, “We continued clearing our Shade Border and potted on all of the plants we had to remove temporarily. We received a delivery of fence panels, gravel boards and bags of ‘post fix’. We could then begin removing our old wattle fence panels and replace them with new wooden fences.” After the photos I noted, “Almost there!”

When we next visit my garden journal we will be in February and we will see how the shade border refurbishment develops.