After spending a week in Finland, visiting my son who is studying there this year, I now appreciate the relatively mild winters we have here in the UK and we can already look forward to seeing the first signs of the spring flowers emerging.

We are growing ranunculus in the poly tunnel this year and Dad has been weeding and tending whilst I’ve been away, I can’t wait to see all the gorgeous colours that will be on show in the next few months. We also have anemones in the tunnel and I’m hoping that most have grown as the mice are very fond of the corms! I love these simple flowers, just a single stem popped into a bottle is enough to lift the spirits.

I have selected some unusual varieties of tulips to try this year, which you won’t find on the high street – including Purple Peony, Apricot Beauty, Pink Twist & Angelique to name a few. This our first year of growing these tulips so we shall let you know how that goes, along with some beautiful photographs.

January is all about planning the garden for the year ahead, I have already selected which seeds I’ll be growing although no doubt I’ll be tempted to buy more!

I had a Christmas present of a note book, which had the words – “to make a garden is to believe in tomorrow” which I found very inspiring, because as any gardener knows it’s what’s going on under the soil which matters at this time of year. It is easy to get disheartened and think nothing is happening and then all of a sudden new shoots are appearing all over the place.

I have enjoyed my down time but am now itching to get sowing and look forward to the promise of Spring.