Country courtyard garden - March update

Sat here after the first week of March wondering where the pleasant weather has disappeared too. From the daffodils at the front gate beaming with spring sunshine to damp and miserable flower tears this week, a swipe at my gardening joy. Nevertheless I have ventured out in a bid to get started and transform the front courtyard garden into the paintbox of colour it was last year.

There are lots of plants just stirring in their pots and in our larger planters, in fact some never went away as the winter has been so mild. My geraniums are still showing some bright pink petals, ready to burst out fully in a couple of months and lots of the perennials are well above the soil, not afraid of chancing some late snow and a zap by the frost. The herb bed is coming to life although I hope they don't get too comfy as they will be being moved due to my Boo dog thinking this area makes a great toilet!

We have been around the garden and cleared away leaves and debris, moved the pots together in order to sort out what has made the winter and discover what things actually are - must make a note this year and do some labelling! With the courtyard being all pots, many of them were just slotted into gaps last summer in their shop bought plastic tubs since I was after instant oomph and I had spent a lot of money on glazed, terracotta pots and other containers. This year I'll buy more pots so that the garden looks more cohesive.

Despite the cold and drizzle, we visited the local plant nursery and antique centre where I purchased a galvanised tub £15 and some plants; garlic chives for £1.40, Arum italicum £4.20 for a shaded area out of reach as it's poisonous (had just seen it funnily enough in a garden whilst on Sweep's rounds that morning) and some lamb's ears for £2

Add to them a selection of bare rooted roses from Tesco £2 each, a lilac and a forsythia for the same price - bargains! So I have lots to do without even looking at the seeds I purchased at the end of last season. However I have sown some chard and other salad leaves into a standing trough and hopefully if the Boo dog stops jumping in here to dig (!) they will be ok.

At the moment I don't have a greenhouse and will be using a table in the living room for all my seeds and probably all the window ledges too. I'd like the garden to look more cottagey which is hard with it all being in pots so we shall see how it all knits together. This will be my first full year here after gradually moving last summer and wanting to create a quick fix garden, now I will have more time to plan and study, discover the joys of container gardening a bit more and give a bit more thought to planting combinations rather than haphazard schemes.