I just like to smile

‘I just like to smile. Smiling’s my favourite’ - Buddy the Elf

In December, I think people smile more as they are nicer to each other. It’s called Christmas spirit, I think. Despite December being the start of winter, people try to make it an exciting month, with lots of lights and special foods for different celebrations.

Bloomer’s elves met up in the garden for warm Vimto and mince pies this month. Just after the first lot of snow. The excuse was to decorate the garden. Poor Rachael spent hours hammering hundreds of plastic bottle tops into a couple of wooden trees made from pallets. The effect was amazing, particularly when they lit up at night. Our own little festival of lights. We also hung lots of the woollen pom pom balls we made last year on various trees around the garden. As most of our flowers had died down, this was a great way to brighten the garden up.

The 1st of the month was the start of meteorological winter. It’s a quiet time in the garden normally. But this year the shrubs flowered about a month later than usual. So, it was time to cut them back to give them strength to flower again in the spring. The salvia had got really big, so needed a good trim. There were winter pansies for dead heading too. Not surprisingly, there were also weeds to dig up.

I’ve been asked if my worms are still ok. For those of you that haven’t followed these blogs, I got a wormery about 4 years ago, along with some pet worms. They have been munching through my kitchen waste ever since. Producing rich compost and liquid plant food. Well, I still have them. I’ve kept them in my garage, so they are protected from high and v low temperatures. I leave the compost they have made in the lower level of the wormery and use coir matting on the top layer. This acts as insulation for them, as their munching slows down in cold weather. Then next spring, when they get warmer and more active, I will use the compost to enrich the soil my veg grows in.

This is the darkest month of the year. The good news is that it starts to get lighter each day from the 21st. The new moon is on the 23rd. According to the astrologers, this month’s new moon rules ambitions and goals. So maybe you could be thinking about your goals as you prepare for Christmas. Particularly if you want a decent present. But it’s also a good time to plan your new year’s resolutions, perhaps. My resolution is to try to keep up with the weeding!

The Blooming Old Gardener

(who is now going to take a couple of months off from Blog writing)