A wee garden update

It's a short post this week

My mother is in town, so at the time you read this we will be hosting our first house guest in the new house. This is especially exciting because we moved from a one bed flat, where we couldn’t easily host people, so this is the first time in around 9 years I can properly entertain visitors overnight. I’m hoping Sandie will be the first of many such visitors, and I’ve very much enjoyed setting up the guest bedroom, it’s finally giving me an opportunity to use the special quilts and blankets I’ve been saving for this exact situation.

I wanted to write a short post on the state of the garden, in January 2025. It’ll be so fun to reference these posts over time, to see how things change. Andrew bought a drone just before we moved house, so we could take aerial shots of the garden over the coming months and years. We just need to befriend the neighbours first, so it doesn’t look like we’re spying on them over the fence.

The rhubarb is starting to really come away, with the beautiful acid green and candy pink colour poking through the soil. George, the previous owner, left us an absolutely epic rhubarb patch, I currently have 6 large well established plants, plus a couple of extra I’m not sure survived us laying turf (they got a bit trampled, sorry friends). Sadly, I want to move all the rhubarb, it’s currently in the exact spot I want to put raised beds. I’m not sure whether to let it grow and fruit this year, then move it and build raised beds later in the season, or just take the risk and move it now, but running the risk that it’ll interrupt it’s current growth. This is a classic Sandie question, my mum has many decades of gardening experience and I plan to put all that knowledge to use whilst she’s with us.

I was very excited to see what I think is my first snowdrop coming through. I planted spring bulbs in the front garden, but I can see dozens coming up all over the place, so clearly George also had bulbs in the ground. I’m really hoping he planted tulips, I would love to have some cut flowers for the house in time.

This little ugly spiky bush was just at the end of it’s fruiting when we moved in, back in October. I think it’s a quince, but because the fruit is a perfect dog choking hazard (side note: dogs rarely choke but much more commonly swallow objects and need them surgically retrieved) I had to get down on my hands and knees to gather all the aged, soft, rotting fruit, because Badger was intent on carrying them off in his mouth. It was during one of these episodes that I managed to basically impale the top of my head on this spiky horrid bush, where after I took the loppers to it in a fit of pique, clutching a tissue to my bleeding head. I was all set to pull it out, but I’m glad I didn’t in the end because look at how pretty these flowers are. You can see them from the sofa in the lounge as well, which is a very lovely sight in these dark winter days. I’ll still have to gather up all the bleeding fruit in October though, won’t I, I’ll make sure to wear a cycle helmet next time.

I didn’t take a photo, but my sempervivum definitely did not survive the snow, it’s basically rotted away entirely. More fool me for planting it out so early. I was chatting with one of my work colleagues who’s lived up here for 4 years now and is also a keen gardener, and he was basically warning me to moderate my expectations. He suggested not starting seeds in the greenhouse until at least March, which at least saves me some time and money. I have enough to be getting on with this year, so I’m leaning towards spending this growing season on bigger macro projects (I want to install a pond!) and planting larger plants and trees. I’m currently in an email discussion with a very knowledgeable fruit tree nursery in Glasgow, who specifically sells fruit trees suitable for the Scottish climate. I want to buy an apple and a pear, and ideally heritage and local varieties, to maximise the chances of them fruiting reliably with little input from me. I’ll let you know what I end up choosing!