Big Garden Birdwatch and more pruning

After a frosty night, the weather was beautiful today - fine and sunny. 1st job of the day wasn't gardening at all. I watched the garden from the comfort of the bedroom window for an hour, new bird watching binoculars and mug of tea in hand, taking part in the Big Garden Birdwatch for the RSPB. needless to say, I picked the wrong hour, and there were very few birds actually in the garden - 2 blackbirds and 2 starlings (which have remarkably bright red feet) I counted the neighbours' gardens as well - saw a robin, a magpie, a wood pigeon, a blue tit and two goldfinches.

Then out into the garden to finish off the final rose pruning. I have four roses in the bed on the right of the garden - a deep red "Tess of the D'Urbervilles", a deep pink "Corvedale" (which hasn't established very well for some reason), A white "Jacqueline Du Pre" (which was the first rose I ever planted and flowers from May to November, virtually non-stop) and a deep pink "Gertrude Jekyll" (which is very highly scented) These roses were sold as shrubs, rather than climbers, but it soon became clear that "Tess" and "Gertrude" wanted to climb, so I added 2 stout obelisks to provide height and support. A third obelisk in the middle was planted with a summer jasmine. The remainder of the bed contains a lavender hedge and a variety geraniums, sedums, japanese anemones, penstemon and aquilegia.

This is how it looked when I started - a tangle of dead stems and foliage.

In addition to pruning the roses, I wanted to clear the debris from last season to allow the daffodils at the back of the border to be visible (they flower in March) and to enable me to get to the vine along the fence at the back.

After three hours, the border was transformed to this

 

I now have a very full garden waste bin.

The garden is now showing signs of coming to life, with shoots visible on some of the herbaceous plants:

This is Sedum Spectabile - it has pink flowers in late summer

This is Euphorbia Griffithii "Dixter" which has bright orange leaves in spring, to match the orange tulips.

This is clematis "Alyonushka" which has deep pink bell-shaped flowers in summer