Gardening the blues away.

So. I've been feeling blue lately. Ultra blue. And, I do mean in the sense of being down in the dumps not some artistically started paragraph about suddenly loving the blue paint on my lounge walls. There are plenty of reasons for this in my life right now, and my feeling of helplessness isn't helping me to do anything to change the way things are.

There is one thing though at the moment I'm finding motivation for. The garden. Following plans for The Resolution and Operation Garden I have been making head way in these cold and soggy winter months.

 
I have been planting seeds. Even though this is very early, some of them are germinating and making little plantlets. This is one of the best things in life I feel. Seeing that brand new plant that you started off. Some of these are from seeds I have collected and that is even more satisfying.

The hardwood cuttings I took a month or so back seem to be thriving. I can't wait to pot them on.

I (as is my way) have listed all the plants I have or can grow from seed. This I'm using to make a comprehensive planting plan. I can't wait to get some of my cuttings and seedlings in place so that I can start to see the blank canvas that is my garden start to come to life.

I went to the garden centre and hunted through the reduced sections. I love this area, the plants may only be past their season a little bit, but by choosing perennials you get next years plants half price! I picked up some Cyclamen, and a slightly mad purchase, a shrub that can grow to 25ft tall. Griselinia Variegata is an evergreen half-hardy plant, if I can protect it from cold and keep it pruned, I'm hoping it'll be a beautifully bright haven for wildlife.

 I also bought a full price plant that I have been lusting over in someone else's garden recently. Having not had the balls to go up and take cuttings (even on my 2am post-work cycle home) I couldn't pass up the opportunity to buy it when I saw it sitting there. Cornus sanguinea 'Winter Flame' is just a dogwood, but a spectacular one. Yellowy-gold at the base turning to firey-red at the top.

My garden is hardly a haven of rest and tranquillity at the moment, if you stand still too long you end up sinking about an inch in to the boggy, muddy lawn, but there is something infinitely pleasing about squatting down and seeing spring bulbs start to poke their heads through the soil, something restful and tranquil no less.

How do you alleviate the blues, or take the edge off when there's just too much to cope with?

All images are © Chloe Cooter 2013.