At the end of a busy day Paul and I have always done a 'garden tour' - we tidy up the kitchen and take an evening walk in the garden. All sorts of things are accomplished. We assess progress on everything in the garden, pull up a few weeds, water a few newly-planted treasures, make plans for new developments and taste the latest salad leaves or fruits. We are always accompanied by our two collies, Molly and Meg who love some company in the garden and it gives us a chance to talk to each other - which can get overlooked when the pace of life is high!

I have never been sure what blogging is 'for' but when I was asked for advise about the best time of year to come to England on a garden tour, I knew that blogging could be some of the answer. After just one year of entries here, I will have a complete record of an English garden through the year. So this will be the story of my garden and the poeple who enjoy it!

The garden is looking very spring-like today with flowers on hellebore, Forsythia, Ribes and Spirea. The daffodils are fading while the primroses that seed freely around the garden are looking lovely. I noticed the first signs of my arum lily emerging and I am pleased about this as I though it might have found this winter too hard. Over the wall in the vegetable plot there is plenty of activity. We have peas germinating and potatoes in the ground yet to emerge. Paul has recently planted parsnips, carrots, leeks and chard. In the greenhouse I have a succession of lettuce and some already planted out in the garden. We start the season in February with Tom Thumb and Little Gem and then expand the repertoire as the season progresses. Also growing in the greenhouse I have celeriac, cucumber and tomatoes. In the second greenhouse we are picking mixed baby salad leaves planted around 5 weeks ago.

Its an exciting time of year in the garden and I'll have more to report soon!

Susy