January 19th 2026 Leeds castle and got myself a new bed in Walton-le-Dale

Well the temperature has improved slightly on the previous few weeks and I have definitely noticed more bulbs appearing. Only this weekend I was at Leeds castle in Kent, I was very pleased to see a plentiful amount of snowdrops, already out! For those of you who haven't been to Leeds castle, I can recommend it. Once you have bought the ticket, it gives you free entrance for 12 months, I believe that they have 500 acres of land that can be explored, I didn't venture that far, but I did have a wander through the kitchen gardens. Despite it being winter, I could see that they were very well laid out with plenty of interesting plants, trees, vines and shrubs. I can only imagine how wonderful a sight it would be in the warmer months.

Back at the house here in Walton-le-Dale, we have already built a small brick bed for 2026, filled the base with cardboard sheets and then put lots of smaller sticks on top of that. Next step will be to top it all off with some very well rotted manure, and it will be ready for planting in.