It is easy to admire the 18th century landscapes of Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown – even regarded as ‘nature perfected’ by some. He removed the previously popular ideas of formality, creating gardenless gardens intended to blend seamlessly into the surrounding countryside. Vistas of wide open undulating green grass, unconstrained by hedge, fence or a wall, evoking some imagined Arcadian idyll from long long ago…

Yellow may be one of my favourite colours! It first came into my life in a meaningful way when I was very young, many decades ago. My mum was decorating my new bedroom and she offered me a choice of coloured wallpapers. One was mostly bright yellow and this was my instinctive first choice (and her choice too). Once decorated, the room felt warm and bright, as if there was always sunshine outside my window.

A lot has happened in the months since the last SeeHow blog. We moved north … from the heart of England to the beautiful, quiet, Banffshire coast in Scotland – far from the maddening crowd. Wild cliff-edge walks; secluded rocky inlets; turquoise water washing over the white sand; near-empty beaches that run for miles – and all within a few minutes’ walk! Despite this on our doorstep, there has been a migration away from the area over the past decade or so and there are now many houses for sale at bargain prices, perfect for anyone looking for life more closely linked to the seasons. (So, if this is your dream, come and have a look!) But what about the countryside this far north … and what about the gardens, the plants and the flowers? What grows happily? The surprising answer – almost anything you want!

My last journal entry mentioned the small ornamental pussy willow (Salix caprea) that grows in a near-by garden. It has a very distinctive domed shape, with lots of contorted twisted branches forming the core. Willows are dioecious, meaning that they are either male or female. The tree I pass is male and each year it is covered in beautiful ‘pussies’ or catkins, that turn from a soft grey to become a vibrant yellow colour. At the time of my last journal there were just a few small buds beginning to break open, hinting at springtime to come. What a change these last 3 weeks have brought, despite the storms and the colder-than-usual weather. The tree already has many bright yellow catkins, covering the south-facing side of the dome. Interestingly, the north-facing side seems to be about 2 weeks behind. I had not expected the orientation of the tree to have such a noticeable effect on its growth.

Wherever we live in the UK, there are a magical few days when our gardens are transformed. The end of winter is in sight. At first the changes are tiny and hardly noticed. Plants push themselves inquisitively above the surface of the soil, for their first taste of chilly fresh air and weak sunlight. Tiny buds begin to swell and open, transforming bare branches with tiny spots of colour. These are isolated moments, full of promise that we silently register, while getting on with day-to-day life. And then, almost overnight, they reach a tipping point. They begin to coalesce into a thin veneer of springtime that seems, to me at least, to spread a gloss of gardening excitement everywhere.

Outside, on 21 January, the early morning sunshine is bright, but it is still very cold. The lawn tells the story, as the low sunlight casts long shadows, that slowly migrate across the garden. In the sunshine the grass and evergreen plants glow shiny green, wet with melted frost. But the areas in shadow remain frozen all day.

Thank you to all those who have read my blogs over 2021 - SeeHow is now one year old! It has been a great adventure bringing a unique idea and brand new product to the market, so special thanks for all those who bought SeeHow, making this journey possible. We are currently working on new and exciting additions to the SeeHow family, including SeeHow plants volume 2 and SeeHow fruit and veg. We hope you like them as much as SeeHow plants volume 1 - please check them out on the website in a couple of months’ time.

Over the weekend I was caught in the first blizzard to hit Berkshire this year and my allotment water-butt was frozen over when I check my polytunnel for storm damage on Sunday. It is hard to believe that just a week ago we enjoyed lovely balmy weather during a short trip to the East Coast of Scotland. Since then, the east side of the country has been ravaged by the recent storm, with many trees blown down. One of our favourite gardens, Cambo Gardens in Fife, was hit hard, with a number of significant trees now sadly gone, which is hard to believe. On our visit the skies were blue, the weather warm and the gardens looked wonderful! It was fantastic to see so many flowers still blooming – Roses, Dahlias, Verbenas, Rudbeckias, Salvias and many more, in the high-walled garden. However, at this time of the year, it is grasses that are the heroes in the garden – golden and subtle, creating swathes of powdery softness, swaying in the wind. Outside it was actually quite windy (a portent of the storm to come), but a walled garden can provide perfect shelter, not just for the plants but also for our own well-being.

Autumn temperatures are quickly dropping, especially at night. Here, in the Thames valley, the temperature hit zero last night and the grass and dead leaves were white with frost this morning. The colder weather means many of this year’s summer and autumn flowering plants are coming to an end. Everywhere the predominant colours are now shades of greens, yellow and browns, with just a few of this year’s colourful blooms still surviving here and there in the more sheltered spots.

Autumn leaves offer a fantastic additional ingredient to the garden colour mix. They come in all shapes and sizes!

At this time of year, is there a plant to compete with Dahlias when it comes to variety of flower shapes and sizes and sheer exuberance of colours?

My last journal provided a glimpse of this year’s autumnal Chelsea Flower Show. Although the organisers say this is a one-off occurrence due to covid, maybe there is a case for repeating this in the future, from time-to-time, to keep things fresh. There are a lot of flowering plants that run on through the summer, sometimes well into autumn and Chelsea show-cased many of these. In a sense these plants ‘hold back time’ – just what many of us need as we start to think gloomy thoughts about the warm weather coming to an end!