SPRING AHEAD

I know that we are in winter now and that the shortest day is only just behind us, but the spring bulbs in my outdoor pots and troughs are poking through the compost and encouraging me to 'nil desperandum' when the snow (which has just gone) and the gale force wind and rain which are now howling and lashing are doing their best to push me into the doldrums.  Under the front window, in a long trough, I have planted tulip and iris bulbs saved from last year and I cannot wait to see them in flower once again.  I particularly love Iris Reticulata 'Harmony'. 

Iris reticulata 'Harmony'





I was lazy last year when winter was approaching.  I haven't protected many of the perennials and the Japanese acers that I knew that I should have protected.  There just seems to always be too much to do nowadays so I have left them to thrive or not survive. 



I'm surprised to see that the penstemons are full of luscious green growth and show no sign at all of dying back.  I thought they were supposed to be fairly tender and yet we have had freezing nights and a good layer of snow for the last week which, thankfully, has now gone.  Over the fence, in the neighbours garden, a neglected rose bush has three red flowers on it.  Is there a moral there somewhere?  That I should simply neglect my garden and let it get on with it?



I did put up the mini-greenhouse.  It's only a cheap thing but year after year I have erected it during the winter and stored many of my herbs in it.  This year a plastic part of the plastic and metal frame broke in one place and it's only the clear plastic inner cover and the strong green outer cover that is holding the frame together.  Unfortunately, as I went to zip up the green cover, the zip broke, and the inner cover seems to have shrunk because that won't zip up properly at all.  There comes a point when things seem to be going against me that I think to hell with it.  Spring will tell me whether or not the raggedy greenhouse has once again protected my plants.  Next spring I must buy a new one though.