February | 2022 | Mom in the Garden

Hello there! I hope you are keeping warm and cozy wherever you are in the world. We have had the craziest weather of late! Thankfully, I was able to get out and work in the garden earlier this month, which I always find helpful for my mental health. It’s too windy and cold for my liking at the moment, though. We even had snow! O.K., it was gone within a few hours, but it sure was pretty to look at while it lasted.

I have to say that I am very happy to have flowers blooming in February. It gives me such hope as I watch their progress. That goes for all flowers, actually. I think it is why a lot of us have gardens in the first place. I am conscious of not wishing time to go faster for more pleasant gardening conditions. I think it is better to make do – and make better – what is on offer during the ‘off’ months. You’ll see that I’ve been building my collection of hellebores. I also added an early variety of iris this year, that is currently in bloom. It is called Iris reticulata and its flowers are so pretty and delicate.

I hope you’ll enjoy the collection of pictures I’ve gathered, showing you my February garden and my chickens.

Take care, and stay safe!

In Peace,
Dana

I had to start with these beauties! It is so wonderful having Hellebore flowers in a winter garden. They are very easy to maintain and while their flowers usually point downwards, they are beautiful none the less. There are ‘single’ and ‘double’ varieties, as can be seen in their single layer of petals vs. multiple layers of petals.

This collage’s hellebores:
Right three from the top: Anemone Picotee, Double Ellen Red, Anna’s Red.
Top left: SP Frilly Isabelle.
Bottom from the left: Harvington Double Red, Winter Sunshine.

The beauty of hellebores isn’t just in closeups of their flower faces, the plants themselves are lovely in full view.

This collage’s hellebores include:
Right from the top: Double Ellen Red, Harvington Double Red, Anna’s Red.
Center from the top: Anemone Picotee, Winter Sunshine, Unknown variety (pink).
Left: SP Frilly Isabelle.

Look how sweet these Iris Reticulata are! I brought one inside after it was bent over. I’m delighted to be enjoying the pretty coloring from the comforts of my kitchen.

This is a picture of one of the jobs I was able to (partially) do earlier in the month. I weeded the Hoggin! Hoggin is a mix of gravel, sand and clay that works really well for pathways as it allows water to drain through it. Turns out that it also needs weeding. You can see around the edging that I have a weed blocking sheet underneath the hoggin – and below that I also have cardboard. The truth is that weeds will grow despite your best intentions! These weeds were pretty harmless though, and mostly grass. I used a hoe-like tool and raked them up. It took longer than I thought it would, but I was happy with the results. I still have more to do, whenever the weather settles down!

The weather on this day was super! I took this picture of my winter garlic after I finished weeding the hoggin. The temperature was mild and the sun was shining – perfect gardening weather! 🙂

snow garden with snowdrops, hellebore, fennel and garden arch.

Then the weather changed… Thankfully, most of the plants are O.K. with snow. I thought the dried fennel looked quite pretty completely covered in snow (bottom right picture). The Snowdrops, too, looked lovely. But the Anemone Picotee hellebore looks a little bit weighed down!

The chickens were not too impressed with the snow. They stayed under their house while it was snowing, and only ventured out after it stopped. Funny enough, they have no issue with wandering about when it is raining out! Here we can see the Bluebell (she is the only one I really call by her name, which is ‘Buckbeak’), Daisybell. and two Rhode Island Red hybrids. They’re still laying eggs, too!

View of the garden with and without snow.

Just like that, everything can change. I’m glad that in this case, the garden went back to ‘green’! Thanks so much for stopping by! I’d love for you to leave a message of where you’re visiting from. 🙂

Hi there! Welcome to my winter garden, where the weather might not be the best, but you will still find interesting things to see. I’ve had a few people recently comment to me that surely I’m not working in the garden now. It’s winter! But honestly, there are always things to do. For my garden, I weed all year round to try and stay on top of it. I also might have ‘projects’ to work on for the garden – like an area that needs to be cleared or plants removed. Admittedly, I am a fair weather gardener, meaning that the weather has to be somewhat decent for me to venture out. But if the temperature isn’t too cold or the wind too blustery, I enjoy being outside working in the garden. Let’s see what’s happening in the garden as I join The Propagator for his meme of Six on Saturday.

1 – Snowdrops. I know it’s not much, but this little bunch of tiny white flowers brings such excitement, as they’ve pushed through the soil and bloomed in what is usually rather unpleasant weather (I’m being polite). I have another bunch, directly across from these, but their white flowers seem to have been eaten by something. Ideally, I will divide this clump after they flower (or at the end of the season in March), to spread the beauty next year. I have my eye on a new place for them, so stay tuned to see how that goes.

Helleborus orientalis 'Double Ellen Red'

2 – Helleborus Double Ellen Red. This plant bloomed very late last year, and with not a lot of flowers. Plants can be quite funny that way. It certainly looks beautiful, healthy and full of blooms right on time this year. The flowers face downwards, which isn’t great for pictures. I just prop the flowers up to capture their beauty. This Hellebore is five years old, and it’s taken this long to really establish itself.

3 – Helleborus Harvington Double Red. What can I say, I like double reds! This one joined my garden last year, and so I’m happy to see the handful of blooms on it. There is another similar hellebore in this bed, bought the same time, and it doesn’t have any blooms yet this year. Hellebores are low maintenance plants and their blooms are lovely to see in the winter. They typically are used in woodlands, but seeing that I don’t have lots of trees in my yard, I simply planted them where ever there was room. 🙂

4 – Helleborus Winter Sunshine. This hellebore would be my favorite if I had favorites. The leaves are a pretty blueish-green, and it is covered in blooms all winter long! The flowers start out white and turn pink over time. I planted this in 2014 and it is a really nice sized ‘clump’ now. If it gets blackspot (not uncommon), I just cut those leaves off and it will continue to bloom without issue. Isn’t it lovely?

5 – Winter skies. I will never grow tired of the beautiful skies we have the privilege of seeing. Even if nothing else in the garden is looking special, the sky can be spectacular. The top right picture is a sunrise, bottom left is mid-day sun, while the other two are sunsets.

6 – Irish Robin. I distinguish this with ‘Irish’ because the American Robin, while similarly orange breasted, is much bigger and with a gray back. These Robins *love* to sing. They also love to keep me company when I’m weeding. Sure it’s no wonder they hang about, because when I turn the soil, they have easy access to the worms! I’m always glad for their company.

And that’s what is happening in the garden. There are a few more hellebore plants that will hopefully be blooming over the next few weeks. And then it will nearly be time for daffodils! Winter will be gone before we know it. 🙂

I hope you are keeping well. Thanks so much for stopping by. I’d love for you to say hello in a comment!

In Peace,
Dana

Mom in the Garden

Enjoying life. In Ireland. With my family.

Monthly Archives: February 2022

A snow covered February garden

Snowdrops and Hellebores in a February garden – Six on Saturday