Can I come in?
I am considering making a first foray today into the little back garden I took on a couple of months ago - the snow has gone,and I think the ground may have defrosted a bit.

It's small, mainly grass, with shrubs in need of pruning at one end. There are also a couple of small evergreen leylandii types that I want to get rid of. There is a Buddleia to be cut back, Californian Lilac and Choysia. Also an Elephant Grass in the lawn, which HAS to go. I have brought a dwarf apple tree with me to go there. I have also got a Fenton's Special rhubarb, and a young gooseberry, which is a seedling from the rampant fruit machine I used to have at the last house.

I have a raised bed along the front of the house (which is possibly nearly 200 years old). When I moved in I put some little winter flowering pansies, cyclamen and some spring bulbs in there. (They look a little flat, but seemed to have survived the snow falling off the roof on top of them). There's a dead Potentilla and what looks like a distant cousin of holly in there, which are going. There are also Pot Marigolds, which I like. It is west-facing, but gets light from late morning, and I have a rose to go in there - I'll probably plant more. I am a fan of the David Austin English roses: old style, perfumed floribunda sorts, but repeat flowering. They also sell the really old stuff like the Apothecary Rose, and Rosa Mundi.

I want to make a raised bed for veg on the yard at the back, but as serious building work may happen this year, I will have to wait until it's all gone. Anyway, an upside is that I have been told that the soil here is very fertile. It's volcanic, I think.

Andrea