Christmas in the garden

Let's face it, apart the fun of feeding the birds, this is a miserable time in the garden! 

als.

The world outside

Mistletoe

By the "world outside"

I have a holly tree in my garden. When it's close to Christmas and I have lots of berries, I'm quite pleased. 

The challenge of the garden

I've lived in my current home for ten years and I'm still trying to create my perfect garden. It's still a work in progress. Of course, I have many excuses for my "failure": lack of time, illness, too much rain, too little rain, heat, cold, too many weeds, my dog. 

​Having gardened on beautiful, practically weed free loam and on heavy clay, I can say that I have found nothing more difficult than thin, stony mountain soil in terms of growing some of the more hungry plants we like to see in our gardens: roses and clematis, for example. (The exception to this is probably water-logged clay which seems to kill everything except for large shrubs and trees.)

The soil, of course, is not infertile. Both the soil and the wet climate are ideal for a wide range of British native plants such as buttercup, dandelion, dock, chickweed, goose grass (cleevers), creeping grasses and the horrendously persistent bindwind. Like most people, I wage war on these weeds because they stop me growing other plants that I prefer. 

Rain is a wonderful thing, but we do have rather a lot here and summer is sometimes a miserable affair. It helps the weeds, ruins the lawn and when it's very heavy, washes nutrients out of the soil. It also promotes blackspot and mildew, and the blackspot particularly, is a persistent problem. 

Why I love it

​Despite all of this, the clumps of stubborn weeds,  the overgrown shrubs, blotchy roses, invasive perennials and areas of bare ground, I can still go out into my garden on any day in the spring or summer and rejoice in lovely combinations of plants, individual gems, glorious scents and the amazing buzz of hundreds of bees.  And that is magic!

​

I'm not an expert professional gardener. I'm an enthusiastic amateur who has been gardening for nearly forty years.  Although I'm sure I could give advice that would help to less experienced gardeners, | am mainly interested. in sharing knowledge and ideas and communicating with other gardeners. That way I hope to improve my own gardening!

Like a lot of people nowadays, I'm interested in living in harmony with the landscape and the environment rather than trying to impose my will on it. 

I'm not a 100% organic, but I do use chemicals with great care and only as a last resort. 

That means, of course, trying together with lots of other gardeners, (and farmers and horticulturists),  to mitigate some of the effects of climate change and habitat loss. ​

A lovely orange Welsh poppy, one of the native plants that I happily allow into the garden

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