What’s The Weather Like: It’s a CRISP start to the year, isn’t it? Funnily enough I posted on Instagram yesterday about how there was a lack of cold this year, but just like that there seems to have been a frost overnight here in Birmingham- how’s it been by you? The weather has been a balmy 14°C here for most of the week – we’ve even had prolonged periods of proper sunshine…mad right??

What I’m Doing: This week has been all about sorting out the potting bench and getting ready for things to kick up a notch with growing and sowing. I’ve mainly been inspired by several people on Instagram, mainly Steph and Kevin to get organised!

There was a fair amount of autumn sowing going on at Potting Bench HQ and the rewards of that are clear in the cold frame at the moment: sweet peas, teasel, ammi (both) and some other odds and sods all doing pretty well. And touch wood, we haven’t lost the zippy greenhouse just yet – those winds have been awful! I’ve sorted through all the hundreds of seed packets and divided them into things I want to sow and the others I’ll likely give away to friends.

Anything Else? There’s probably some cutting back that I need to do, but the lazy gardener in me doesn’t want to do it. But then I remember Matthew Wilson saying that the idea of ‘putting the garden to bed’ and cutting everything back isn’t really necessary and he’s right! Another win for the lazy gardeners!

What I’m Sowing This Week: The flower sowing doesn’t really kick off just yet, but there ARE things you can sow right now. For me that’s been all about Antirrhinum (Snapdragons), and in particular these ‘Potomac’ Series ‘Dark Orange’ – hoping to dot these at the back of the rockery where they’ll shine between the purples and whites of the perennials there. I’ve also sown some of the sweet peas I’ve harvested from our blooms last year (which are surprisingly still giving off the odd flower here and there)!

I’ll be back next Wednesday with another entry to The Potting Bench Diaries.