This is all new to me but I have listened to you all and here I’m am a blogger with probably the worst grammar but written from the heart who’d have taught!

Whilst I’m very enthusiastic to get started on the gardening year straight after the Christmas break when my shop is still closed. In reality I do all the indoor chores like, clean the potting shed, clean the seed trays, order my seeds and dahlias, I power wash the tunnel and make plan among plan from the kitchen table of how my garden will look during spring,summer and autumn. 

The early part of the year is also a very busy month behind the scenes attending trade shows, buying for Christmas 2024. One of my most asked questions is how do you do your Christmas 2024 buying in January and February? Well the truth is it’s pretty easy as Christmas 2023 is still fresh in my head. I’m then like a child on Christmas morning when deliveries arrive in late October as by then I have completely forgotten what I bought back earlier in the year and I get surprised all over again! Luckily for me the same rule applies since I first opened the shop which was to only buy what I loved and sure if it didn’t sell I’d use it in the house!A couple of years on that would be a problem what with the bigger quantities I need but same philosophy applies. Only buy it to sell in the shop if you love it! 

The ebb and flow of the year is set by February 1st and I start growing my seeds as soon as Valentine’s Day is over, followed by potting up my dahlia tubers, they are a flower I have fallen in love with over the last few years the span of colours, the variety from little pompom dahlias right up to stunning dinner plate dahlias and everything in between is a sight to behold in my cut flower garden. I honestly think I’ll never be without them in my garden ever again.

Maybe I am actually a fair weather gardener but I leave the garden clean up till temperatures rise a little bit. A wise old woman (mind you she’d kill me for calling her old!) once told me that the amount of bugs and bees hibernating under leaves, in hollow perennial stems and around the stones and paths in our garden is mind blowing and they don’t really like been disturbed in the cold. So that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it but now March has started I’ll get out into my garden for an hour or two every day weather permitting. I find the best way to do it is to take a task and see it through till completion. I think if you look at your garden as a whole the job seems insurmountable and you get completely overwhelmed so my advice is to just take it task by task, bit by bit and day by day. It’s amazing how quickly it’s gets into shape and under control.

Hope you enjoyed this and it’s helped to get you motivated to get outside , to start planning even a couple of pots on your patio, everybody has a garden in them but start small and build on it each year, you’ll all be amazing!