Thyme To Garden - January 2018

[AB Editor]

Hello all,
Here is a new gardening sticky for all your burning outdoorsy questions!

The December thread is here: https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Home-and-Garden/Question1582181.html

[jno]

people go outdoors in the cold and rain at this time of year, when they could be sitting in front of a warm computer on AB? Madness.

[woofgang]

Happy New Gardening Year! I haven't done much as my garden is like a bog but the bulbs are up and the mimosa is in flower. Buds on the camellias showing colour too.

[Togo]

Can't wait to get started. Bulbs are starting to show and even the Roses have started to put out new shoots despite the awful weather. Calendar already marked up to clip the old heads off the Hydrangeas, clip the Blackcurrant bushes, and the cloche will be assembled once January is out ready to bring on the Dahlias and Begonias that are currently stored. We were only talking about looking forward to starting again last night and hoping for a warm spring. Patio will need the moss and algae sorting again, and we will be getting compost and the like on site bit by bit so as not to have a lot of heavy work all in one hit. Roll on. I hate January.

[Chipchopper]

A bit of a quagmire around here too!
I have a Ceanothus shrub that was flattened by a heavy snow fall, I'm gonna saw it back hard and hope that it might re sprout, come spring, fingers crossed.

[woofgang]

I'd love to post something positive and inspiring about spring on the way and things bursting into bloom in odd corners but this is more the truth of it

[Chipchopper]

Couldn't be closer to truth, trouble is 'I can't handle the truth'! ;-)

[Hopkirk]

First job for me is to sort out the mini sink hole threatening to eat a paving slab. All the rain seems to have made itself a new drain.

[Tilly2]

I have crocus, aconites, daffs (still green but with flower heads), polyanthus and fuchsias in flower at the moment. Lovely. Next door's magnolia has massive buds. I am looking forward to that blossoming.