A December garden

I know I am blessed to have such a lovely garden space, through the winter we don't sit outside, but I am often outside doing bits, I need an outside space, it really does everything they say.

Along this fence is my grey tub which now has loads of pots on becoming a display area until next summer, the olive tree is loving this spot in the sheltered corner. I love the blooms in hubby's old motorbike boots, just a bit of fun.

The fake grass is best at this time of year when real grass starts to get messy in our clay soil, this area now drains well and looks good. I love the bare branches of the magnolia and acer trees. The fleabane daises should stay green all winter, softening the end of this section.  

Through the winter months this is the productive end of the garden, I have broad beans, leeks and some carrots in one bed, the second bed has brassicas, Japanese onions and more carrots, I am very pleased with the hurdles around each bed, it's a shame they are plastic, I keep nets on the bed to stop cats and pigeons.

The greenhouse is working as well, on the top shelf I have 5 foxgloves, 4 aquilegias, 4 geums and some small violets. In the propagator I have daisy seeds hopefully for daughters garden. I have spare brassica plants and some gaura cuttings which need potting on. On the other side is all my tender plants.

It's been a quiet weekend, we did go out for a meal with hubby's petanque friends just a nice carvery, daughter slept over whilst ex had children for the night, she had a lazy evening in, we spent Sunday morning together, I do like these breaks she has, sadly in the new year her ex won't be staying at the house anymore as she starts to build her own life forward, it was cold and wet outside. As much as we loved our grandchildren having daughter to ourselves is brilliant. 

There were hardly any leaves to pick up, I am always glad once they have all dropped, my two packs of tulips are in pots, one at the back and the other in the hosta tub. The patio we have stopped cleaning and will wait until the spring before we give the whole space a scrub. The winter months are where you view the bones of your garden, this is the time I make plans, normally just little tweaks, this year I want to change nothing, I am very happy with this space, for me it is perfect. 

Saturday was bright after a night of heavy wind and rain, our village Christmas light festival had to be scaled back, we did not go, no point in getting wet before going out, it was nice to see the sun in the morning. Inside the smaller Christmas cakes are finished, and ours has its marzipan on, I will let it go hard before icing which makes it much easier for me to cut it away so I can eat some of the cake. 

Today I am meeting daughter and we are going pottery painting, this was her request, will be fun without the children we can concentrate on painting, later I will treat her to lunch. This week is school plays and my brother is visiting us for a week, he is home this Christmas, his daughter and grandson will be staying with him.