December on the allotment

Plot 8

Work on our allotments  slowed down considerably during December.  Our visits there were only to feed Ziggy the allotment cat, to pick produce and to cut greenery for my Christmas wreaths and flower arrangements.  December is such a busy month at home with all the preparations for Christmas that the allotment has to take a back seat. A few days before Christmas we went down to see what vegetables we could pick. The brussels sprouts haven't done very well and a lot of them have blown. I decided they weren't good enough for the Christmas day dinner table. Maybe another day. But I pulled beetroot, parsnips, leeks, swede and collected some onions from their storage racks in the shed.

plot 10b

We've had frosts this month which have finally finished off the flowers in the cut flower beds.  The autumn raspberries have gone over and are now ready for cutting back.  There are still beds which need to be cleared and topped with manure, the rhubarb and fruit bushes need manuring too.  There's plenty to do and I can't wait to start work again as soon as the weather is a bit milder.

Thank you for reading my blog. Wishing you all a very Happy New Year and lots of good gardening.

Winter colour and rustic decorations

 

Just before Christmas we visited RHS Harlow Carr.  I love the rustic decorations  in the gardens especially in the greenhouse and summer house.  They always give me ideas to use at home although some of them probably take a lot of preparation.

The table display in the summer house was quite simple but looked really good so I decided to decorate my porch in a similar way. I only managed to make one candle bowl as my porch table is much smaller than this.

Walking around the gardens we were quite taken with the winter colour from the dogwoods.

Seeing all this colour always makes me want to plant some dogwoods in my garden, but I wouldn't have enough space to get such a lovely effect.

Putting up the Christmas tree

 

The  second weekend in December we always start the process of putting up the Christmas tree. It always takes longer than intended that's why I say 'we start the process'. It can actually take several days. The tree was bought the weekend before and was left standing in a bucket of water outside until we were ready to bring it indoors.

Getting a 6ft Christmas tree into the house is not an easy job. We have the first job of moving the furniture to accommodate it. As we move the sofas around ( and they are heavy) the carpet gets a thorough vacuuming and we usually find numerous bits of Lego and small toys which the grandchildren have lost throughout the year. This time I all I found was a ball belonging to the cat and a dead spider. The cat views all this activity with wide eyed interest and as the tree is put into place she takes up residence under its lower branches. Perhaps she is remembering the fun she had last year. We are wondering if we will find her sitting on the top branch in the morning. No she will be banned from the room overnight!

When the tree is finally in place and decorated we rest our weary backs and agree it's the best tree ever (it always is). The cat meanwhile is plotting what mischief she can get up to under those branches.

Christmas shopping event

We've been really tired this week following last weekend down at our daughter's helping with her fund raising event. Packing up the car with all the stuff was quite a challenge especially as we were travelling a fair distance. Making sure nothing got squashed was important as well as finding room for everything in our little car. Our suitcase was somewhere underneath all the boxes as was the spare wheel. My husband was hoping we didn't get a puncture on the journey down!

But we had a great time and the whole event raised  a good amount for cubs funds. I enjoyed running my Christmas decorations stall and meeting so many people. It was good to chat to people even if they didn't want to buy.  We didn't sell up, I didn't expect to so we brought  some things back with us which we can either make use of ourselves or pass on to some local charity events and I managed to sell another fresh foliage door decoration once we got home. Now I need to find the time to make my own door wreaths.

Being so tired we haven't felt up to doing any allotment work, but as the work is slowing down now I'm not too worried. It's all about clearing and manuring beds at the moment and we can do that a bit at a time.

We've had frost this week so I'm glad that I remembered to close the lids on the cold frame where I have put some tender plants.

One of the wreaths I made