WHEN the weather has been bad, and I haven’t been doing anything particularly interesting in the garden, it can sometimes be a bit of a struggle to think of things to write about in this column.

Looking for inspiration this morning, I fell to gazing out of the office window at the garden beyond - I suspect this is how all but the hardiest of us see the garden at this time of year The window of my office (it’s really the spare bedroom, with my desk and computer in it) looks out over our narrow front garden to the road beyond. The garden is bounded by a rather ugly blockwork wall, which I’ve gradually been hiding with woody climbers like Hydrangea petiolaris, Schizophragma hydrangeoides and Cotoneaster horizontalis. A large Japanese maple, taller than the bedroom windows, hides much of the view in summer, when I like to watch small birds flitting about in the foliage. In winter, we hang bird feeders in its branches, so I’m still watching the birds, but now I can look through the tracery of fine stems, to the beds below.

My eye is caught first by two witch hazels; one by the gate and a second, smaller plant half way along the wall bed. The first is hamamelis x intermedia ‘Jelena’ with rusty orange-red petals and very little scent; the second is yellow, Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Pallida’, less tasteful to my mind, but with a wonderful fragrance to its spidery flowers. Since I can’t smell the perfume through the glass, the orange one remains my favourite.

Also in the wall bed is a small shrub with silver foliage, Ozothamnus rosmarinifolius ‘Sussex Silver’. I know from experience that this will eventually grow quite tall, and that the silvery effect will diminish as the plant ages, but it’s easily propagated from cuttings and can be replaced every four or five years. Beneath it I can see the rather tatty foliage of Iris unguicularis. This is a relatively new addition to the garden, a gift from a friend, which could flower at any moment – my reference books say the fragrant, pale lavender flowers are produced in late winter and early spring.

If I crane my neck a little, I can see two bits of topiary – a clipped yew ball and a holly, which I have recently begun to clip into some sort of a shape. There’s also a big specimen of Mahonia x media, in flower since November despite a winter battering. Soon there will be carpets of snowdrops, followed by crocuses and bluebells, and it will be safe to venture out again!

Photographs attached: Iris unguicularis; Ozothamnus ‘Sussex silver’.

Jobs for the gardener this week...

• If you want to keep them, plant out bowls of daffodils and hyacinths that have finished flowering in the house, before they dry out.

• Prune gooseberry bushes by removing any lower branches that will touch the soil and begin to root. Cut all the main shoots back by half, taking side shoots back to about three buds.

• Check ties on climbers and wall plants, replacing any that have come loose in high winds.