Six on Saturday is a weekly meme originally hosted by The Propagator but now in the tender care of Jim at Garden Ruminations.
I definitely chose the most challenging time to start participating given there’s been a week of frost, snow, wind and rain. I hope everyone has kept safe and your gardens were not too battered.
It’s been pretty much impossible to do anything in the garden this week except grab a sledgehammer to break the ice on the pond, walk briskly down to the compost bin with vegetable peelings and make plans for the year ahead. I hope that explains the scarcity of actual plants in this week’s six and the greater focus on projects.
One – The first signs of narcissus, planted in pots because the squirrels just dig them up if I put them in the ground.
Two – Hebe ‘Rosie’ obviously didn’t check the weather forecast before deciding to risk producing a bloom.
Three – There are a few fruits remaining on the Chaenomeles japonica growing against a very ugly wire fence.
Four – Hundreds of foxglove seedlings had made themselves at home in the strawberry bed. (In fact, they’re all over the garden.) In the brief interval when it wasn’t raining or snowing, it was weeded and some young plants grown from runners added to fill gaps. The white flakes are the remains of a layer of whelk shell put down last year to deter slugs from nibbling the fruit. It worked . . . to a degree.
Five – This very boring picture is the starting point for one of my 2026 projects. We had the fence replaced at the end of last year because the old panels were falling apart and there was ivy growing over and through them. All the other shrubs growing in front had to be cut down or removed, some of which were on their last legs anyway. Now I need to get my thinking cap on…
Six – Last year’s main project was a much needed makeover of our large front garden. It involved removing an overgrown hedge largely made up of spirea japonica which had suckered into what we laughingly referred to as the lawn, clearing the whole area, having four raised beds built and new turf laid. This year’s project is to plant a few more evergreen shrubs along the fence and finish filling the raised beds with plants for year round interest. Also to clear the remaining ivy from the front hedge and fill the gaps with new hedging plants.
Do check out the posts of other participants by following the links in the comments section of Jim’s post. If you fancy taking part yourself but don’t know where to start, here’s the participant’s guide.
What Cathy Read Next... 
I do love a good project and your front garden looks amazing, what a lot of work and the beds will look amazing when planted up. It is the best thing seeing the bulbs poking through. It will soon be spring. Enjoy your week.
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What a great transformation. Good luck with the new plans – always something to tackle somewhere!
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Fun! What sort of new hedging plants are you thinking of? My mixed hedge has a decent section of Spirea – I wish what is there was a bit taller, but the hedge serves as a fence between my place and the apartments next door, so I hesitate to get rid of them because it will take too much time to get anything tall enough
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My neighbours like single species hedges (laurel, cypress, etc) but I prefer a mixture of species as I think it’s more interesting and better for wildlife. Things doing OK in there at the moment are holly, dogwood, forsythia and a shrub rose. So possibly another holly, maybe a variegated one. I’ve also thought about photinia, viburnum and pyracantha. The hedge was overrun with ivy so it took a bit of time to see what else was in there and what state it was in. I’m always suprised how things you think are dead turn out not to be after all.
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Your raised beds look great! I always like the look of them – but they’re not so common in my neighbourhood.
The new project is also very exciting – a blank slate! We are hopefully going to be in the same situation, with a brand-new fence, soon!
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They’re uncommon in our road as well! Most people seem to have decided to pave over their entire front gardens. To be fair, my house is one of a group of 1950s bungalows that have large front gardens with room for car parking space and soft landscaping.
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I’m impressed with all your projects! That area along the fencing certainly looks promising. And it’s always so fun to see “before” and “after” views. Happy “six”!
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WOW! Amazing. I have not just black thumbs, both of my hands are totally black, and probably all of my toes and feet. I could kill a plastic plant. So I truly admire people who can grow stuff.
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Just as well you’re too far away to come and help out then LOL
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Hehehe… well, if I’m ever near you so we could meet up in person some day, we’ll need to do so in a cafe or restaurant, because I wouldn’t want to infect your plants!
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