Chill December brings the sleet, Blazing fire, and Christmas treat. Sara Coleridge
It’s feeling very wintry now that we are in December, and we are having to wrap up well to work in the garden. December is the start of meteorological winter and the 21st gives us the shortest day. And then of course we have Christmas, my favourite time of the year, apart from the weather.
Volunteers put up some decorations for Christmas, alongside our Remembrance poppies. And we have an amazing Christmas letter box to post your letters to Santa in. All this is giving the garden a lot of colour, although we still have lots in flower too. We have a few evergreen shrubs too and these can have colourful leaves. And the alpines in our felt hanging baskets look amazing.
Of course, no sooner have we put up Christmas trees and decorations than we get a couple of stormy days with strong winds. So our volunteers had to pop back and re-fix a few things. The winds must have got our milk bottle doves excited, as I found one that had flown away and seemed to be eating the cabbage in the veg garden.
Talking of strange things happening in the garden, it looks like we have some new dinosaurs. There seem to be a lot more in dinosaur world than I have seen for ages. Perhaps they are gathering there from other parts of the garden where they have been hiding during the summer.
Extra things have been put out for the birds now that their food is starting to get sparse. Our corn cobs and strings of nuts are in the bird area at the moment. And we are leaving out some water for them too. We don’t seem to be getting as many birds in the garden this year. But hopefully we will start to attract them again this winter
The veg garden is depleted, but the kale is doing well, and the cabbages have hearts. It looks like we will have plenty of green veg for Christmas. So hopefully volunteers will help themselves to our produce for their dinner.
The Blooming Old Gardener