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! 🙂

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!

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. 🙂