Planning for the garden

My poor garden is really suffering at the moment. We've had so much rain, and everything is waterlogged. The two lavender plants in soggy pots that I bought last year look are looking particularly sorry for themselves, I've tucked them up against a wall for some shelter and I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

The weeds have taken over too but I just can't face going out in the cold during a rain break and getting all muddy. However lots of my bulbs are coming up which I'm really pleased with as I planted all sorts of different ones! I'm hoping to have enough flowers that I can pick them and have them in the house.

I couldn't wait to start planting some seeds. I have a tray of snapdragons which I planted months ago, they grew slowly over the winter and are now picking up. I harvested the seeds from the plants which I bought last year, so if they grow well then I've saved myself a few pounds on buying new ones this year!

I received a box of flower seeds for Christmas which contains seeds for about twenty different types of plant. If they all germinate then I'm going to be overrun and I'll need to buy more seed trays! I've started with the three that said they could be planted in February - sweet peas, stock and agastache. I've grown sweet peas before but not the others, so I'm interested to see how they turn out.

As well as flowers, I'll also be planting up my vegetable patch. I had great success with my tomatoes last year so I'll definitely be doing those again, probably with a mixture of plants I've grown from seed and plants that I will buy. I will have yet another attempt at courgette and cucumber, which are usually spectacularly unsuccessful, and I'm hoping that my strawberry and raspberry plants will survive the winter.

One project that I have for this year is to create some kind of a living wall on the blank wall of our garage. I'm not really sure where to start so some research is needed - there are expensive kits available, but maybe it's worth it if I have no idea what I'm doing!

I'd also like to add some kind of trellis to the front of our house which has always looked rather plain. I want something that grows on the trellis rather than the wall so as not to damage the brickwork. Probably some kind of colourful rambling rose is the way to go, but I've never grown roses before so  it's another thing that I need to research!

I can't wait for some warmer (and drier!) weather so I can get back out into the garden properly!