December and the Christmas Gardener
This is a good time and opportunity while you and your garden are taking a well earned rest to take a look at putting some winter colour in the house, the conservatory and why not in the flower beds if the weather is reasonable. You can’t beat cyclamens, available in a wide range of colours, fairly hardy and reasonably priced.
Specialist bulb/corm growers have some excellent plants on offer and as long as they are planted in well drained gritty soil in a sunny aspect can be a wonderful addition of colour to many parts of the garden.
Spare a thought for the wildlife at this time of year.
Birds depend on us all during difficult weather conditions, so do ensure there is appropriate food for them, not just in dispensers but also for the ground feeders, blackbirds, thrushes, robins etc. Thrushes are on the endangered list now and they love what gardeners don’t, snails and slugs. It will help if we can leave the garden a bit more relaxed and untidy, so plenty of leaves, broken branches, bits of moss etc. as this will generate a food chain of over-wintering insects that ground feeding birds require very desperately in cold snaps!
Wishing all you gardeners a very restful Christmas and with the gardeners’ new year starting on 22nd December and daylight hours slowly increasing, a double happy new year to you all.
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