It is a gloomy December day today. It looks more like autumn than winter in our garden! The leaves did not change colour until just recently, due to the mild temperatures of the past month.
At the end of November, late at night, we found a nice surprise in the garden, a hedgehog was wandering around! When the mini-monsters heard about it, a hedgehog house of branches and twigs was immediately built, for the hedgehog's hibernation. We just happened to read about it to them, a little earlier :) Unfortunately, no hedgehog has been spotted in the house yet.
The vegetable garden boxes are as good as empty, except for some herbs. The raspberry bush has been cut to the ground, it will shoot out in spring again. We already cleaned up the cucumbers and tomatoes last month. We fill the boxes with organic, fertilized garden soil, already before spring comes.
The currant tree is still holding on to the last leaves, the firethorn still has stunninly crimson berries, while the berries of the St John's Wort are shriveling up. The grape is also losing it's leaves quickly, the last leaves are of a very pretty yellow.
Our two Forsythias, on both sides of the garden, are also in autumn colors, they still have a lot of leaves. Our pine tree is doing very well, it is happy when the days get colder.
The Acacia is the last to shed it's leaves, but with all the other falling leaves, clipped branches and weeding, there is still a lot to do before the winter cold sets in. We drop the swept up leaves in the plant beds, there it turns into compost and it also protects plants and flower bulbs from the cold. The mini-monsters are happy to help, with the leaf rake ;) they evenly distribute the garden soil in the boxes.
The Dwarf Medlar is full of berries, it looks very pretty and in the front garden the Holly grows. It was rigorously pruned last year. The kitchen window had almost disappeared behind it! That's why there are fewer berries now, but the leaves have a beautiful dark green colour!
The insects have disappeared from the garden, not really but they have found a warm place to sleep through the winter months. The slugs and snails too :)), but the birds are still here. Just a little while longer and we'll be feeding them (the birds) again!
The-year-in-our-garden-blogs have come to an end, we really enjoyed showing you what a year looks like at ours. If it snows in the winter, we'll show it to you but beyond that: it was fun but now it's done!