Tidying up and first shoots

Walking through the garden taking stock. Some semi-hardy plants like my Solanum alba have dropped some leaves after the deep cold. I also wonder if my Fuchsias grown against a sheltered wall have survived. Hope that they will perk up again.


I have decided that I just can't keep up anymore with the ivy growing up my wall which was initially planted to hide an ugly downpipe. So I cut it off to wither away and dug most of the roots out. I am thinking of growing a jasmine instead which is much easier to handle and will also provide a nice scent, or go with another Solanum.


I only noticed a week or so ago that the huge sycamore tree in my neighbour's garden has been pruned. Most of the branches are gone with only two big ones remaining - one of them still is a bit over my garden but very high up. I'm not sure if they'll take it all down or leave it like that but it's already a big improvement in terms of light. I gathered together the trimmings that fell into my garden so I should have plenty of kindling and a few logs when they are dried out.

Browsing through another gardening catalogue I came across two things that piqued my interest: first, curly kale. I always liked to eat it but have never grown it. Second, grafted tomatoes (a tasty variety grafted on to a vigorous root stock). Who knew such a thing existed! I will stick to normal seeds though.



In final news, I have spotted garlic shoots (along with shoots of the hyacinths and daffodils). It's nice to see something growing in this cold and damp season.