February Update

Well that will teach me to keep my mouth shut won’t it, last month I was saying how good the weather was for this time of year. And straight away it turned cold, wet and wintry with storms Keria and Dennis the Menace causing havoc everywhere.

Although the weather has been pretty miserable, we’ve had no floods or serious damage at Loftus so we should be thinking ourselves lucky to have dodged the devastation that others have had to endure. Can’t imagine how awful it must be to flooded out of your home. So, despite getting soaked almost on a daily basis Paul and I are counting our blessings.

The sight of Hellebores and Bergenia in flower is all it takes to fill me with excitement for the year ahead and I’m sure all you keen gardeners feel the same.

Now is a good time to start looking at magazines and seed catalogues and start planning your garden for the summer. I find this job almost as enjoyable as actually putting the plan into practice.

Last summers’ Loftus Blooming Beautiful competition was a great success and Pobl really want this summer to be even better. We hope to encourage more people to take pride in their gardens and enter as it strengthens community spirit and shows the outside world how proud you are to be living in a Garden Village. To make the competition more professional this year, we will be having a guest judge who is a local celebrity in the gardening world. Marion Powel has won best front garden in Usk in bloom for 12 years and last year won the prestigious title of Wales in Bloom Best front Garden. Her garden is truly amazing, so it would be great if she goes away from Loftus impressed with all our efforts.

Our work at Loftus for this month is mostly pruning and preparation for spring.  We try and get all those jobs done that we find hard to fit in the rest of the year like repairs, servicing machinery, sharpening tools, tidying sheds, ordering sundries and that sort of thing. However, there is one job we have to stop ourselves from doing. Although its tempting to have a good tidy up in the park about now, for the sake of biodiversity, we need to hold off a bit longer. Dead leaves and natural debris is a hibernation home for many beneficial insects.So, if you think Loftus is looking a bit scruffy in places just remember it’s because the bugs are still in bed!