And the wall came tumbling down

So we have had a minor set back in the garden. The top sleeper (retaining wall) at the end of the garden has toppled over.

I can only imagine this is due to lots of rain and soggy soil. From the looks of things the birds are pretty happy. They seem to be spending a lot of time on all that soil. Worms, yummy. Unfortunately this is not quite enough of a reason to put off having it repaired. Especially as the next wall down looks a little bit compromised now too. In hindsight, it was probably clear it was going to happen looking at the tilt of the sleeper in the before picture.

We have been out again and done some more weeding. More excitingly, we have begun putting pots into better homes. It looks a lot bigger and a lot less messy with the weeds gone and the pots moved. This is also giving us a clearer idea of what the garden will look like in time.

There is a large half moon shaped planter attached to the front of the house. We have decided on some flowers for it, order pending. Nemesia 'Wisley Vanilla' and Nemesia 'Sunsatia Plus Little Orange'. The vanilla have intense smelling flowers and are delicately beautiful, I once saw them in someones garden and have pined after them since. I cannot resist getting the orange variety to accompany them as the vibrant colours will lift the whole look. They are long flowering, and enjoy sunshine and well draining soil, which this planter will provide. Getting these ordered is on the to do list for this week and they will arrive mid march as rooted cuttings ready to plant. They will be beautiful to photograph when the time comes and I'm hoping will look pretty in a little arrangement of cut flowers to enjoy inside the house.

As mentioned before there are lots of birds in the garden. So far, lots of Blue tits, Robins, Sparrows and I think Great tits have made there way in. Great tits, lol... Just me...? Having birds in the garden is so exciting. Not only because they like to join you gardening and are fascinating to watch but they are the best thing to combat plant eating bugs. Its natures way of letting the flowers sparkle, lets face it we'd all rather see a sunflower than an aphid. During these winter months, since there is little for the birds to feast on, we have put bird food out. Hopefully the birds will know they can reliably get fed in this garden and will continue to come here. In less that a week they have munched through four fat balls, that's quite a feat for our tiny feathery friends.

For colour scheme we are starting with the idea of shades of red/burgundy, orange, and yellow. While ensuring there are lots of evergreen shrubs to break up the fluers and keep the garden looking alive through winter. Personally I really struggle when in a garden centre not to just pick up everything I like, maybe a rough list or plan would be a good start at combatting this.

There are some bulbs poking their heads up through the soil, not sure what they are yet, but it will be a lovely surprise when they flower. Out the front there are also some daffodils that have just popped, they look beautiful. I do wish we had some snowdrops in the garden, hopefully that's something we will be able to plant and enjoy next year. In the mean time the snowdrops are flooding local green spaces for us all to enjoy. Seeing the beginning of the growing season start feels a little bit in line with lockdown being lifted. Fingers crossed once the flowers are out we will be too.