Six on a Saturday for January

On a Saturday, gardeners from around the world share six things from their garden in their blogs and on social media. It’s a great way to see over the fence of what is going on in other people’s gardens. As January starts to bite, I thought I’d share #SixonSaturday from my garden as I went in search of the green!

We often treat January like a doctor’s waiting room: something to be endured while we wait to feel better. The garden can look a bit brown, a bit bleak and lonely but a quick run around with a camera looking for things to photograph for #sixonasaturday makes you appreciate just how much green is still there!

Choisya Sundance is a fabulous evergreen! It’s a real limey green, maybe even bordering on yellow and so in the Winter garden, it really stands out and brings a bright ray of colour!

Rhododendrons are the staple structure of my garden, I have five – for now! For me, they are the plant which keeps on giving: their evergreen leaves remain true all year long, they grow large enough to fill a space or provide height at the back of a border and then, come late Spring, I never tire of their abundant blooms in a myriad of colours! They are also the National Flower of Nepal if you wanted to learn a random, new fact today!

I have two Viburnum Tinus which live on either side of the Rhododendrons to give structure and which have grown way better than I had anticipated to really fill out the space. So much so that I’m going to have to rearrange the whole border around these evergreens as they are squashing some of the perennials but digging out and rearranging the borders is what it is all about for me!

I’ve panned out in the second shot of the Viburnum Tinus so you see how well it looks beside the bedraggled, brown neighbours!

The compact Hebe Little Red Rum is a gorgeous wee gap filler and seems to like my moist, clay soil. The green is tinged with the most striking burgundy and so this little plant earns a place among the big boys as a stunning contrast.

In the same border as the Hebe Little Red Rum and one of the Choisya Sundance is a stunning Rosemary plant. These are planted in the border near my kitchen window so I have some greenery to look out at everyday. I chop bits of the Rosemary during Winter to stick in vases of Winter colour and to have the scent in the house.

I could not fail to mention the Parsley when talking about surviving greens as the fact that it is still going is a first for me! It’s in a pot, in the rain shadow so I’m guessing that helps as it is not getting drowned in the Winter rains and with any luck, both the Parsley and the Thyme will just keep playing their green tune right through until next Winter! There is some Lavender in their too but not so hopeful that it will emerge triumphant come Springtime!

Do feel free to leave a comment and enjoy reading other #SixonSaturday blogs for information and inspiration – you’ll find them posted on The Propagator’s Blog and lots on Twitter on the #SixonSaturday hashtag. The Pink Wheelbarrow can be found on Twitter too at @PinkWheelbarrow.