After a very cold start my garden is still covered with snow. Some small areas have melted, a few snow-drops are poking through but any other flower colour is hidden. Unfortunately, to add to the general feeling of not much to report, we forgot to take the netting off our fruit cage, so the snow, which is evidently astonishingly heavy, has broken some of the uprights and collapsed the netting. We had to rescue this before even thinking of doing anything more creative. We had draped more netting over our sprouts and broccoli crops, which also collapsed under the weight of snow. Needless to say, there was enough room under the collapse for our local pigeons to get in and nibble at any greenery they could find.

But, a talk by our February speaker sets the juices flowing again and we can now start sowing seeds, under cover, in seed trays and modules. The garlic I put out in the garden at the back end of last year was dug up by my assistant gardener (!!) and so I've replanted some from our home grown bulbs, using the inner tube from toilet rolls. These are most useful for, among other things, sowing parsnips, which seem to like a long growing season but in my garden give very poor germination sown direct into the soil. The shallotts have also been planted in the same way. The card rots away completely so the whole thing can be planted out when either there are signs of growth, or there is enough root and green shoot to deter the birds from pulling up the bulb.

The flowering borders are looking very sorry for themselves, flattened by the snow and still not cleared of all the dead stalks and leaves from last Autumn. I wonder how much has been lost to the first really hard Winter for some time. I must make more efforts this year to be systematic and visit all the parts of the garden in rotation, rather than stick to the parts in the sun, and do at least some of the jobs at the correct time, rather than when I think of them, too late, or even sometimes too early. Thank heavens plants really want to grow and are nowhere near as fussy as some books and magazines would have you think.

March

Seeds are bursting through in their various trays, though to my horror I have realised that one of my little propagators is not working, so the begonia corms put in to start sprouting are still rather cold and damp. Over the years I have kept a record of my seed sowing and, like every one I have lots of unfinished packets of seed. I know you are supposed to keep them in an air- tight tin in the fridge, but mine are kept in a shoe box in the study and seem to come to little harm. In my experience some seeds, such as tomatoes, last for years and germinate perfectly well even after being opened for more than 2 years. Parsnips, on the other hand, don't. They do need to be fresh, even unopened packets don't germinate well after a year hanging around. If you are worried that you might waste good growing time, try a little test germination. Preferably early in the year put a few seeds on a damp piece of kitchen paper, in a warmish place and wait a week or two, keeping them damp. If they are still viable, there will be signs of change and growth and you will know they should germinate normally. If there is less than 50% germination, you need to buy fresh seed.

Outside the garden is definitely showing signs of Spring. Flowers in bloom include primroses of all colours, including a muddy pink that I should remove, hellebores, which I love, as do the early flying bees, Winter jasmine, viburnum, mahonia, pulmonaria, snow drops, crocus, one dwarf iris, double daisies, violas and the lovely little blue anemone. In my garden, some of these plants seed freely, and the hellebores in particular are a lusty tribe, breeding with any other hellebore they can get their pollen on. This gives a beautiful range of colour, from very pale and clear cream to almost black. In my garden aquilegias do the same, there is a huge range of colour through all the shades of palest pink to darkest purple, and the form varies from short, fat, heavily doubled flowers standing only 12" high, to much larger, longer spurred, single flowered plants 3' high. At this time of year, the aquilegias are only just showing any growth, but are indipensible, being so tough and obliging, and then being so lovely in a real cottage garden sort of way. Even when their flowers are finished and cut down, the foliage is interesting with a lovely shape and glaucous colour. Other plants showing signs of their future are the big red buds of peonies and the more slender red shoots of the euphorbia griffithii "Fireglow". This plant took me a few years to find a place it liked, but now it is rampant. It appears to like to be in the sun and in reasonably well drained soil. A plant I grew from seed, erodium manescavi is also, I think, wonderful. From early Spring to the first frosts it has fine ferny foliage in a low growing mound. Above the leaves stands a continuous succession of bright pink flowers held in clusters. The added bonus is that dead heading it is easy because when the flowers of each stem have finished, the whole stem is easily pulled from the plant. The plant itself gently bulks up each year and is easily propagated from root cuttings. Seed does not seem to set very readily and after 8 or 9 years of having it, I have only collected its seed twice, and failed to germinate that! (see July for an update on this seed!)

I have now got round to removing last year's dead stems from nearly all the garden, which will go into a bonfire at some point. I can then use the ashes to either add to the compost heap, or sprinkle around the fruit trees and bushes.

By the end of the month we have baby veg coming on which will be planted out when they are a bit bigger, sweet corn sown in loo rolls, lambs lettuce which has survived the Winter with remarkably little water, in the greehouse, and masses of flower seedlings, some tender, some hardy. So far, planted in the garden are potatoes, onions, garlic and shallotts. After a particularly frustrating go at the couch grass, I had a sit in the stockade. To my delight, a pair of long tailed tits, deciding I was no threat, carried on with their nest building right infront of me. The nest is a beautiful round confection of spiders' webs and feathers built into the twining stems of a Spring flowering clematis. A black bird is also, I think, making its nest in some ivy, and blue tits are investigating one of the nest boxes. Pigeons and magpies are nesting at the top of some fir trees, ready for attacking our veg when it grows no doubt!

April

More seed sowing, inside and out, plus more attacks on couch grass. The lawn gets its first mowing and and the mower gets broken going over a hidden stone! Unfortunately, the long tailed tits have decided that they were, after all, threatened and have abandoned their nest. Such a pity, so much effort gone to waste. The frogs in the pond have been busy though and we have a large blob of spawn. The toads have not yet laid their long parallel lines of eggs. Having cleared out some of the overgrown vegetation in the pond, it is easier to see the life in there, frogs and newts are the most obvious, but plenty of snails and, so I am told, leeches. Our fish died out some years ago and we have no plans to replace them. Considering how plants thrive in ponds, I do sometimes wonder why we spend money on buying pond plants, any one with a pond has more than enough plants to give their friends and neighbours after the first couple of years.

By the end of the month the seed production line is in full swing, hundreds of seedlings, some doing better than others, only to be expected I suppose. Some seedlings, such as amaranthus and snap dragons start very slowly and stay very small until they go in the garden. Then they put on the growth. Others, such as dahlias and French marigolds, look good in their seed trays. I left my sweet corn out of the propagator so they got too cold and rotted. I'll try again as there is still time, but the crop will be towards the end of summer rather than in July/August. I have an unusually large collection of seedlings this year because the club is holding a plant sale in mid May and I want to do my bit to help sales.

As far as the wild life goes, the frog spawn went, it must have become too cold, half the blob became milky in appearance very soon after appearing and then the half that did show signs of life followed. Hopefully there are enough frogs to survive and help eat our overly healthy slugs. Various birds are nesting or have already produced , blackbirds, robins, house sparrows, dunnocks, wrens and blue tits are the most obvious small birds, along with pigeons, magpies and rooks/crows(I'm not sure which they are, loud and noisy I do know!). A mole has found our garden for the first time that we have noticed and has worked its way up one side of the garden. So far it appears not to have discovered the lawn or vegatable patch.

May

This really is a beautiful month with every thing in the garden bursting to do its thing. Having spent so much time on the seedlings for the plant sale I have neglected ordinary gardening and although the flowers can't help but look good, they are also being swamped by the weeds. But, by the end of the month the flowers are mostly taller than the weeds so in some parts of the borders, I can just forget about the weeds for most of the time. I do have to keep an eye on the Japanese knot weed that we have a little of, every time I see its handsome red shoots, I nip them off. After years of doing this, the plant is so demoralised that its efforts really do seem half hearted. I am not so relaxed about the ground elder, which we have in abundance. I do try to remove the underground roots, but they are very persistant and grow into and through other plants' root clumps. The bind weed is similarly persistant and as for the stinging nettles....

In spite of all that is not good, there is enough good to give real pleasure when on a sunny, warm evening, I walk around. Fat, lush, deep red peonies are in full bloom; tall, elegant multi coloured columbines wave above what ever they are growing in and through; a lovely pale pink geranium (not pelargonium) is weaving its way through the foliage behind it. Acid yellow Welsh poppies brighten every corner they seed into and the slightly softer yellow of corydalis, also self seeded has great, light-weight clumps of flower, with a lovely scent when you get close up. The enormous flowers of the perennial red poppies are wonderful, with black stamens contrasting with the papery petals. When they have finished flowering I shall cut them back, almost to ground level and the day lilies infront of them will have room and light to do their show. Fox-gloves seed themselves and their tall spikes add elegance to other, more squat plants. By the end of the month they are showing colour but only a few are in bloom. The erodium that I moved to a sunny but moist part is already in flower and will carry on until the frosts.

Woodruff grows in two shady areas, one always damp and the other under a large tree and so much drier. This is such a pretty, bright green plant with whorls of starry white flowers held above the foliage, which is light green. The foliage has very fine stems and starry leaves set around them. It colonises readily but is so light and delicate, and easy to pull out when it goes too far, that it is a real pleasure. Growing through the woodruff, in both locations are taller, elegant stems of Solomon's seal. I am hoping that my newly acquired lilies of the valley, given by friends, will settle happily in the damp shaded area. Another plant that thrives in damp shade, astrantia, is also doing well, lovely dark red inricate flowers held above beautifully shaped leaves. This plant is very obliging and will happily be split up each year. Two plants I don't need to help along as they would take over the world given half a chance, are golden rod and a yellow sunflower. Each are lovely a little later in the year, but I have pulled up great handfuls of them this month to give more space to the plants in their vicinity. A stipa gigantica is struggling a little after the very cold winter but has sent up a few spikes to flower later.

Some early shrubs are fully in bloom, a viburnum mariesii, choisia, and wisteria for example. My three rambling roses are all covered with buds and one already has a few blooms. Two other roses, Madame Alfred Carriere and Etoile de Hollande are in full bloom, both with a wonderful perfume. Albertine has not yet shown buds, but is in a much more challenging position, planted against a wall and behind, and perhaps fighting it out with, a hebe, jasmine and myrtle.Two helianthemums are covered with flowers and being now at least 5 years old, each occupy a space of more than a square metre. Again, I will trim them fairly hard back when they have finished flowering. A large rosemary bush is also covered with flowers, on a warm day attracting a a goodly number of bees, mainly bumbles but a few honey bees. Two years ago we kept honey bees in the garden but lost the lot to the as yet not identified disorder that is causing chaos in the bee keeping world. Luckily for us, a neighbour, looking after another neighbour's garden, found and alerted us to a swarm. It is now ensconced in one of our boxes and we hope to see the honey bees around our garden in due course.

My irises are disappointing, a new one's flower buds have been completely eaten back by slugs or snails and the other two are not looking too promising. I have started the annual hunt for lily beetles and am systematically squishing underfoot all those I find, so far about 20. They are very handsome, bright, bright red, but very destructive, so they must go! To my surprise I have not yet found any sign of their larvae, which are quite distinctive and look like small lumps of poo on the backs of the leaves.

June

The roses are in full bloom by mid June, 2 three year old ramblers, Reve D'Or and Clarence House, are taking up a large space between them of around 15' along a trellis and spill forward, back and up and are covered in pale creamy yellow or simple creamy white blooms. Canary Bird is in bud but no flowers yet. Albertine is now also in full glory, threading its way through various other plants and trying hard to stab me if I get too close. Its scent and colour combination is such a pleasure that I can live with that! Madame Alfred Carriere is too big for its support but is so lovely and sweet smelling I just cut it hard back and keep my fingers crossed. My red Etoile de Holland is also too strong and stiff growing for where it is, but has now sent up a sucker from its stock root, which is a lovely dog rose, I can't make up my mind whether or not to let that grow and take hard wood cuttings of the posh rose in the winter to replant it somewhere else in the garden.

After some heavy rain various plants have half collapsed and draped themselves over the ground more than I would like. Must support them earlier!! Each year I say that, and each year I forget. A group of 5 verbascum, seed grown 2 years ago, are looking healthy and strong but only one of them has flowered, with its lovely, tall spike throwing many side shoots of maroon/purple. My (very expensive) alstromerias are in full growth but nowhere near as tall as I expected, being nearer 15" than the 30" predicted in the catalogue. The cold winter does not seem to have harmed them at all but, as the books say to leave them undisturbed, perhaps I should feed them to get them to grow taller. We have a wonderful display of fox-gloves, all over the place, where ever they have seeded themselves. Most are shades of pink but one is a pure white and very pretty. By rigourously dead-heading them, some will carry on sending up flower spikes for months, always a bonus. The dahlias grown from cuttings, with the help of a sprinkle of slug pellets, are finally outgrowing the predations of the slimy monsters. Apart from the seed sown ones, a dark leaved and flowered variety, I have 3 taller growing ones, a bright red one called Eric, a clear yellow, Yellow Star and a soft apricot called Anne Elise. All strike very easily from cuttings. I started the old tubers off in February and by mid April, there was enough growth to take cuttings which rooted with a little bottom heat in 3 weeks.

Many spring flowers have now finished, or are well on the way to being over. So, out with the seceteurs. I cut off all the old flowering stems and leaves of helebores, cut back pulmonaria to ground level along with primroses and remove the flowering spikes of colombines to prevent too many seedlings next year. When the poppies finish, they will get the same treatment, cut back to ground level. I usually water and feed the plants I have cut back very hard which sets them off to build up for next spring. I am also pulling out the old stems of all the tulips as I read somewhere that they carry a disease back into the bulb if they are left on, and anyway, the dead stems of tulips look particularly unattractive. The problem with cutting back the poppies is that it leaves a fair sized empty space, which then needs replanting. I find the poppies in particular are so untidy in their growth that I can't grow anything immediately infront of them until I have finished cutting them back, so I need to have some plants in reserve for that moment.

I have been putting spare bedding plants in any gaps I find, often twice as the slugs/snails seem to follow me around making plans for lunch. I grew sanvitalia, a trailing zinnia, from seed, which is a new plant to me and which they have eaten all but one of. In my garden slugs/snails are not interested in lobelia, allysum, cerinthe, snap dragons,or grasses but love dahlias, petunias and French marigolds. They seem unable to make their minds up about matricaria, again new to me, which is a cousin of the well known fever-few. Some of the many matricaria plants put out (they germinated very easily and grew easily to good little plants so I had lots of them) have been gobbled, others completely ignored, very strange. Other pests to keep an eye on have been the saw fly grubs that de-foliate the Solomen's seal, lily beetle, and asparagus beetle, bright red like the lily beetle, but less obvious as they have small black marks on them.

In the fruit area, the gooseberries are looking good, with a heavy crop of large berries. With my one bush we get enough to freeze pounds of them to make crumbles later on in the year. The raspberries will give enough to eat now and freeze for later, not the best grown raspberries in Blunsdon but good enough for me. A tayberry looks as though it is struggling, it is now 4 years old but has never performed particularly well though the individual berries are luscious, dark red and tartly juicy. The red and white currents also look good and if I can keep the black birds off will give a good crop; the black currents are looking very poor, I think they have big bud so I will probably root them out later, as we don't eat many of them any way. Loads of strawberries are bulking up well. I must try and keep the birds off, there are enough to share with the slugs and snails! In the expectation that the club will have another plant sale next year, I shall start pegging down strawberry runners now so they are good plants for spring planting. Our gnarled, old pear tree is covered with rust again and has set virtually no fruit, it has only set fruit 3 times in the 18 years we have lived here so has never been much good for its pears. It provides a welcome dappled shade on the lawn in the heat of a summer's day, so earns its keep that way.

The end of June is hot, with a muggy stillness that is uncomfortable to work in but perfect for growing. My 3rd try at germinating sweetcorn has brought almost perfect germination within 8 days. I will leave the plants in the root-trainers for another week before planting them in the ground. Whether it is too late to get a crop of cobs remains to be seen! I have taken the first picking of raspberries, yum yum, and am struggling to keep up with the strawberries.

Another two swarms of bees have been collected and hived, it will be lovely if we manage to retain healthy colonies over the winter, but having lost all our bees twice, it would be foolish expect success. We will wait and see.

July

By the end of the month most of the soft fruit is finished, we didn't get as much as I hoped, but probably enough to see us through the year. Raspberries, gooseberries and currants freeze very well. The vegetables are cropping well, plenty of French beans, potatoes, cabbage, and even some cauliflowers, some perfect, some definitely not fit to show but none the less tasty. We gave up growing runner beans in favour of climbing French ones, easier to pick and more prolific and they never get stringy. The onions, shallotts and garlic have been taken in to dry off completely, probably too early but it seems to stop white rot developing and the mid month rains were not helping them to ripen. Carrots and beetroot will be pickable soon, and the peas have given their first picking, delicious.

The prettier parts of the garden have some lovely flowers. Various clematis are in full flood. A yellow one, Sundance, in the courtyard climbs to around 15' high and is kept on a trellis. I grew some clematis species seed some 4 years ago and managed to get 4 plants, 3 of which found their home fairly soon. Those plants are rampant and not nearly as restrained as Sundance. They are in full flower now, with a lovely blue/purple flower. The fourth plant has only recently been planted in what I hope is its final home so, so far, it is within its limits. A strongly perfumed white jasmine is competing with a honey suckle, halliana I think, the smell where they grow is lovely. Further up the garden is a section that is fairly new but getting well established. We have brilliant magenta lychnis, bright red Lucifer crocosmia and red/gold helenium providing a fiery picture. Soaring above and between these plants is the tall verbena bonariensis, which will gently seed itself and as a precaution I have already taken cuttings which strike very easily. This year I have tried a new technique with my erodium manescavi, from which I have never before managed to germinate seed. It is easy in July using fresh seed. The hard bit, though not very hard, because each seed is large enough to see and feel, is to find seed. Clearly this plant is very shy about setting seed, it is very free flowering but you need to examine each stalk to find seed, on a stalk carrying perhaps a dozen flowers, each flower could provide 6 seeds, I have been lucky to find 3 on the whole stalk, most of the flowers have not been fertilized.

Further up again the agapanthus are now in flower. They are very lovely with their tall standing heads of clear blue. They seem perfectly hardy and have now bulked up quite considerable such that I can split the clump and spread them around a bit more. They are made even more attractive by being infront of the complementary colour of the blue species clematis.

August

We were away for the first week in August and came back to find the lilies in bloom. I also discovered my eucomis which is always very late showing itself but which I thought had been killed by the hard winter. Evidently not! I have started taking cuttings, so far 2 sorts of helianthemum, helichrysum (a bright, white foliaged shrubby plant smelling strongly of curry) and verbena. I am also following the advice given on the Gardeners' World TV programme last night, to collect seed of astrantia and sow it now. (I did this and put the tray in the cold frame, where it was found by some small animal which completely turfed all the compost out a couple of weeks later.) I will also give a go at taking leaf cuttings of the eucomis. The soft fruit is now over, with so far not a single berry on the Tayberry, very disappointing. In fact, some pigeons are so at home in that part of the garden, they made a nest and laid an egg on the netting of the fruit cage, cheeky or what? The veg are cropping well, though having seen a friend's onions, I am ashamed at the (lack of) quality of ours. Next year......

It will surprise no one that our courgettes go from the size of my finger to that of my forearm overnight. This may not be strictly true but it certainly seems like it!! Our peas and climbing French beans are cropping heavily. I prefer growing climbing French beans, they are very easy to pick,they never go stringy and in my opinion taste every bit as good as runners. I also find them easier to grow, less demanding of water and feeding. The sweet corn, the baby plants ofwhich I bought in June are just about to mature, the seedlings which all germinated, again in June are probably going to be over-taken by the cooler weather of September, so I am not expecting much, if anything from them. Carrots, beetroot, cabbage are all doing well,(well enough for us anyway though they would not win any prizes) and the winter stuff, parsnips, celariac, and brassicas are looking good too.

In the ornamental parts of the garden, the rudbeckias, heleniums and dahlias are the main show but they are still supported by erodium, snap-dragons, nasturtiums, agapanthus, alstromerias. The autumn cyclamen are peeping out from under a whole range of plants, pale pink and very pretty.

September

This month has been lovely and warm with very little rain. Apart from the agapanthus and alstromeria, which have finished, the plants still giving colour and shape are still what was blooming in August, dahlias, asters, cyclamen, erodium, snap-dragons, nasturtiums, verbena, rudbeckias and heleniums. Joining them have been some nerines, and autumn crocus.

I have started some hyacinths in a pot, covered it with a black seed tray and put it under the staging in the conservatory. I have never been successful with these bulbs before, perhaps this year will be different.

We have had / are still having a great crop of apples, probably too many for the trees to bear again next year. We have the remains of an old orchard with two, family apple trees in it, neither of which do very much in the way of production. Some 10 years ago I planted a Doyenne de Comice pear, an Egremont russet apple and a Bramley apple in that part of the garden.The two apples do quite well considering they grow in grass, but the pear, so far, is not productive. We also have a new planting (2004) of 5 trees on a dwarfing root stock (M26), 4 eaters, all unusual varieties and one crab, red Sentinel. These trees have produced dozens of apples, such that the slender branches have been pulled down to the ground in some places.

The vegetable area is looking good, plenty of climbing French beans, a variety of brassicas, beet-root and carrots and still more courgettes.

October

This month vanished in plenty of warm weather and not too much rain. The hanging baskets are still in bloom, the petunias are getting very leggy but still struggle on, but the bidens is amazing, still masses of bright yellow flowers with some trailing lobelia keeping it company. As I tend to neglect the feeding of these baskets, they are remarkably colourful still.

When we got back from a short holiday the weather changed to being rather more autumnal, but no seriously cold weather yet. The veg are still productive, butternut squash has come to full, not very big, size. We can now pick brussels sprouts instead of the French beans which have finally given up. We cut a cauliflower which had lurked unnoticed in the seed bed, very tasty. Cabbages have been very productive, lovely and crisp and a flavour that is delicious raw in salad. The very late sown sweet corn is now mature but has been poorly germinated. Each plant has produced at least two cobs but they are not big enough to bother with individually. They will give a good flavoured stock for soup. I shall let the remaining pods of French beans stay on the plants and pick them when they have fully matured to dry off and sow again next year. Over the course of a few years, with luck, I can grow our own Blunsdon variety which will like it here. I have been collecting other seeds from various flowers, poppies, lychnis, erodium.

When cutting back some dead flowers and leaves from some achillea I have revealed a mass of hardy cyclamen flowers. My treat each year is to buy some of the small cyclamens and grow them in the conservatory, where they will perfume the whole space. Some succumb to mould but those that survive the winter get planted out into the garden in the Spring. Over the years I have gained a fair number of colonies as they self-seed quite freely and flower again in the Autumn. I can move some of the smaller seedlings to other parts of the garden.

In the green house, the tomatoes are still giving fruits, fewer but still packed with flavour. I am starting to put some of the more tender plants under cover.

November

As the weather turns cooler and wetter, the garden needs some serious work to tidy it up. Doing a little tidy up in the conservatory, I remembered the hyancinth bulbs. To my delight, they appear to be doing well, strong, short shoots from each bulb. Fingers crossed that they continue to thrive. I will remove their cover in a couple of weeks time.

December

Too busy, too cold, too wet, I know I should, but I don't do much in the garden. The hyacinths look healthy, sturdy and fine, but completely the same as 4 weeks ago, i.e. no bigger.

January

Too cold, snowy and dark, until mid-month when I start talking over with a friend what to grow for the club's Spring plant sale. Enthusiasm starting to return, I finished the pruning of the grape vine in the conservatory. This is a big job and one I have usually completed well before Christmas, but this year half way through the job, a pair of black birds decided to come in to feed off the grapes that were still hanging. So I stopped, they have now finished any grapes worth eating and are concentrating on their own Spring activities. While finishing the pruning I took some cuttings, pieces about 12-15" long, put them in a bunch in a long plant pot and they are now outside in the cold frame. Who knows? there may be new grape vines coming. As these 2 vines were planted some time in the 19th century, and are a fixture of the house, it would be fun to grow some more. The variety is probably/possibly Black Hamburgh and has delicious tasting black grapes in October. Unfortunately, from my point of view, each grape is full of pips.

The hyacinths still look exactly the same as in December and November, healthy, strong and the same size!!