As the door is about to close on February, and March raises the curtain on another month, the garden will soon be a stage filled with colourful performers.
The morning light arrives earlier each day, accompanied by soundtrack of singing birds, I get to spend a few welcome minutes in the garden before my inter-county commute.
Buds on the Nipponanthemum nipponicum are bursting with green, it is time to cut back the deadwood stems, blue flowers are open on the spreading rosemary, Rosmarinus officinalis var. prostratus, enlivening the grey green aromatic stems with hope of warm days to come.
Warm brown hues linger on the Microbiota decussata, a reminder that it is still not full spring and summer is a while away yet, it will still be many weeks until the brown scale leaves turn from brown to fresh green.
In the stillness of the early morning, the hair-like foliage of orange Carex testaceae ‘Prairie Fire’ does not move, even the slightest breath of wind will shake the wispy foliage like a head of long silky hair.
As the sun rises and the sky takes on a golden glow, the air smells of renewal and swelling buds are bursting with new season energy, but I shiver in the cold air, filled with the warm feelings, but chilled by the season. Soon. Soon, it will be warmer, and the garden will transform and like the days, we will feel bright and warm.
Ciaran The Gardener 