What’s occurring?

At last the weather has brightened a little so yesterday I was able to get out into the garden & do a bit of overdue tidying.

The Patient Gardener has been bemoaning the fact that things have just been too miserable to get out & do much constructive & even I was beginning to feel a bit frustrated at not being able to do anything much! At last I got round to sweeping the front path of leaves so I didn’t get sued by the milkman when he slips with his semi-skimmed. I had actually given him a teeny little walkway through the middle of the leaves but there is no point sweeping until they have all come off the tree now is there. I did a few more bits of sweeping & trimming & then this morning I had a little wander round to see what had been happening in my absence on the other side of the glass.

The camellias have got huge buds on them, a hellebore is flowering its socks off, primulas are starting to flower but all blooms are being nibbled by slugs & snails which must be on cloud nine with this wet & relatively mild weather, the viburnum tinus is starting to flower as is the Fargesia nitida.

Mine began flowering last year so I kept cutting out the flowering shoots & fed it up & we survived one more season so I will try the same this time & just hope we can pull through the crisis. The sparrows & starlings have virtually eaten all the seeds from the cordyline. I was glad to add something new to the menu here: I mean the birds only have sunflower hearts, niger seeds, fat balls, peanuts & mealworms.

It is cheering to see the seed heads of the Iris foetidissima glowing in my woodland (1 silver birch!). Should I scrub its bark for the best winter show – probably not! Bulbs are beginning to peak through in various parts of the garden: the iris reticulata are poking through the gravel in my (fairly) newly planted sink which I did after seeing some lovely examples at the Wisley Flower Show. The obvious gap is a hosta just in case you were wondering.

As for Christmas which is apparently looming, well the tree has been bought & will sit in a bucket outside until the weekend before the big day. The cake has been made. Victoria made me feel quite inadequate.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have bought a few presents, including a few for myself, but that is it! It is only Christmas after all……….