January /February in the Garden 2026

January was a wet month with 10 days more rain than last year, 24 days in total, so the Gardens Team have been in and out of their waterproofs a lot!

We have been finishing the pruning tasks; roses, fruit trees and shrubs and are now mulching the borders and beds preparing for Spring, which will soon be here! The roses, delphiniums and peonies have all had an annual feed of bonemeal.

The days are lengthening and the seeds are starting to get sown. Tomatoes, aubergines, onions, leeks and broad beans have started off for the Kitchen Garden along with a selection of herbs which will stay in the hot house for now. The Cutting Garden is also underway, and so far we have sown a variety of different Antirrhinum, Papaver (poppies) and of course Sweet Peas!  Our potatoes are sitting in the potting shed in trays while we wait for them to start producing shoots (chitting) and then when the soil has warmed up, they will be planted out.

The rainy days have given us a chance to do some much needed tidying up, our Tool Shed, Bothy and Potting Shed have all had a good clean up ready for the year ahead!

We have the apple trees in the Millenium Parterre to prune in early February and once again our fabulous volunteers will be helping us in this task as we have 50 trees to get done!

We have designed a new border which will be planted up in February/March which will look quite different to the traditional herbaceous borders we have here at Floors.  It will be more drought resistant and have a longer season of interest for our visitors.  Comprised of grasses, prairie type plantings and new trees. We hope it will inspire you to consider different ways of planting to cope with climate change and encourage wildlife whilst still ensuring you have a beautiful garden!

Finally, it wouldn’t be January and February without the beautiful snowdrops which are beginning to appear all over the Estate.  We are introducing more into the walled garden gradually with the intention of having different varieties for visitors to look at.  We have also added crocus along the North Wall and hope this will add a splash of Spring colour to an otherwise rather quiet part of the garden. The grounds will be open on 20^th February for everyone to see the snowdrops and the gardens will be open as always – please do come along and say hello!