My last newsletter of the year 💚
Hello Friends!
No, your eyes are not deceiving you...I do not live in magical fairyland where it is forever summer...this was taken in September and I'm putting it here to remind myself that my garden will look like this again IN LESS THAN A YEAR!!!
The year is winding down to a close, and my efforts to complete my new book are re-doubling, so this will be my last newsletter this year, sent with love, and the hope that you will forgive a little gap, while I get Christmas, and New Year, and book delivery out of the way.
The kind of gardening I love to do...contributing to the long-term loveliness of my space - becomes a bit difficult at this time of year, when I feel like I ought to be making wreaths and garlands, and doing things with fairy lights and lighting fires, but I do try to keep a tiny five minute space in the day. Here are my five minute forays this week:
Monday
I sweep and tidy, and I pick up leaves and make a commitment in my my mind to tackle the leaves in the pond. In reality I won't do this until the apple tree has shed its last yellow leaf, but it still nags at me. I spend a lot of time indoors trying to determine whether it's worth spending proper money on a large multistem crabapple tree for the front garden, and in the end I come to the conclusion that it's a bridge too far for my bank account (particularly in the run up to Christmas) so I plump for a small one instead, telling myself that it will grow, which of course, it will.
Tuesday
My janky body seems to be giving me a break in terms of pain, and I have been taking advantage of this and exercising a bit more. I can't run any more which is a bummer (yes, I am one of those annoying people who love running) but I can cycle on a stationary bike, which makes me acceptably sweaty. It fills me with energy and I always want to go out in the garden afterwards.
Today I chop my sedum, whose stalks, once majestic, have been totally flattened by the torrential rain we've been having. The base of each plant is a glorious crown of fresh glaucous rosettes and just looking at it makes me happy. It's frosty and the grass is crunchy. I don't want to step on it too much so I dump the sedum detritus on the trampoline. When I go to gather it up I nearly break my neck on the frosty trampoline. Lucky escape. I retreat indoors.
Wednesday
It's raining but I don't care. I carefully tease out some green alkanet which has lodged itself very cleverly right in amongst the sedum I was pruning yesterday. Before I know it I have weeded the whole patch, and there is a trickle of rain going down my neck and my heart is pretty happy. Wednesday is usually a planting day and I did have plans to put some crocus in the lawn with my auger, but it's too wet and I have visions of claggy earth clinging to the drill bit, so I plant some erigeron and a fern that have been waiting patiently for me to get around to putting them in their allotted spaces in the front garden. This space is now almost complete; the new gate is there, and all it needs is the crabapple. I will blog it when that's in.
Thursday
Lots of fussing with the cyclamen today, which are suffering rather from too much wet, but there's nothing I can do. They'd prefer a drier location but I can't give it to them, so that's that; we can't have everything we want.
A bit more weeding today too, because it is still unbelievably mild for December and the weeds are taking advantage of that.
Friday
Today I saw two nativities. I love a nativity - I don't have a heart of stone, but two in one day is frankly pushing it for me. My kids are sweet. Every day they are sweet; dressing up as a camel or a star doesn't make them any sweeter in my humble opinion...it just removes valuable time out of my already-short day. Perhaps I need curing from hideous badness, or perhaps everyone feels a TINY bit like me but doesn't say it. I wonder which it is? I'm open to both being true. Needless to say, no gardening, although I did manage to sweep the leaves again, and take delivery of my crabapple tree which I shall plant tomorrow.
Saturday
Bonus! Hunk is feeding children breakfast while I plant. The tree is lovely. I had actually explored a few rather more expensive options for much larger trees. They would have looked a lot more majestic of course, but I'm not sure I'd have felt more satisfied than I am feeling right now, having dug a hole, put the thing in, and fallen in love with it (leafless and apple-less as it is) immediately. So happy.
Some blog posts you might like:
My front garden gets its hedge!
Leaf mould how-to
How to grow your own garlic
My favourite gardening gloves
How to feed the birds (and ONLY the birds!)
And I wish you all, dear, dear friends, the merriest of Christmases and the happiest of new years.
Thank you for being the most wonderful companions, and I'll see you on the other side!
All good things
Laetitia xx
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