February in our courtyard garden

Over the past few weeks I've been dreaming about our garden and planning what I'm going to grow this year. Our outside space is a shady courtyard garden, it's a unique urban space sheltered by the wind and our own peaceful haven in the city.

At this time of the year I enjoy noticing the changes occurring in our courtyard. The light levels improve, there are new visitors popping by to use our space, and there are small buds forming across some of our plants, all signalling the garden waking up from its winter slumber. It has been a really wet winter so our space has been really damp and grey. I didn't get round to planting bulbs last autumn so our space has been looking in need of some love.

Our courtyard is rather shady making growing plants sometimes a real challenge. I'm gradually learning what does well and not so well in our urban garden. Over the years I've had many gardening disasters but also some great successes. This year I'm going to embrace our space and try again to make our garden productive and a fantastic space to spend time in.

I enjoy growing flowers and herbs in containers and pots and always try new things each year to see if they will work. I've been longing for a dry weekend to get out in our courtyard and to start making our space look more spring-like. Last Saturday that moment arrived! I took the opportunity to enjoy a rare dry morning in our courtyard. The weather was sunny and warm, perfect conditions to get outside in the fresh air and sort out our space. I took a trip to our local garden centre and picked up some primroses, daffodils and hyacinths to add to our window boxes and pots in our garden.

I came back with a little more than planned! I bought a few new tools, some brand new herbs to plant out, two types of potatoes, a few packets of seeds and some new compost.

On Saturday I had a limited window of time so I decided to focus on planting up our window boxes with primroses and daffodils

and adding the other flowers to a few pots by our back door creating an instant change to our garden.

I'd forgotten how therapeutic getting out in the fresh air and planting things can be. With months of being inside and having to ignore our outside space, the chance to get out in the garden to tidy up and plant flowers made me feel more alive.

Seeing our window boxes with the bright pink and yellow primroses perks me up every morning and gives me a spring in my step.

Over the next few weeks I'm going to plant some seeds and prepare the potatoes ready to plant, I'll let you know how I get on and keep you updated with the progress of our space.

Today is the last day of February and the last day of winter! Spring is moments away. If you have chance this weekend why don't you try growing something. Whether it is a small pot of seeds on a warm sunny windowsill, or a window box with a few herbs or flowers, growing something however small will help you welcome in spring and say goodbye to the winter blues, bringing new life to your space.

Let me know how you get on, I'd love to know what you are planning to grow this year.