Since we are in the middle of winter it is easy to assume, especially in the very cold frozen periods, that the garden is dormant during the winter months . We have had a spell of very low temperatures and even during the daytime it was around freezing.

In a mild spell I popped out to carry on clearing up the garden and weeding and as you can see from the photos on the left, in fact next season's plants are just pushing up through the soil. Emerging are perennials Sedums,  Origanum the herb known as Oregano/Marjoram and buds on a Clematis. It's good to see the tiny plants, which look delicate but are tough to survive the rest of the winter to come.

And whilst we are on the subject of Oregano its a great plant for bees, beautifies and insects like so  many herbs . It is pretty when in flower and I am always keen to attract the bees.

Can you feel a but coming?

It's a massive self seeder and is invasive. It's not difficult to remove but you will never have just one plant in your garden. It really does get everywhere, and seems to grow out of rock and stones so if you do plant it weed out the seedlings regularly.

For more ideas to grow wildlife friendly plants follow the link