Garden - winter 2018/2019

Because I haven’t written in a while, there is much catchup to be done. Fret not, dear (thousands of you) readers, relief is within reach. No winter garden diary is complete without a moan about the leaves and this one is no exception. We suffer from a rare form of masochism that leads to to gather, shred and mulch the leaves instead of the more normal gather and chuck away activity in these parts. Our decision affords me much opportunity to moan, delay and feel superior generally in that order as the process unwinds. The two photographs below show the gathering process from early December.

To the untrained eye, the shredded leaves when applied as a mulch may not look different to leaves that have landed from the tree under the influence of gravity. But to those in the know, they look purposeful, and majestic. They also are less likely to compact, get water-logged, prevent the passage of air and take longer to compost when the warmer weather arrives. The pictures below were taken just before Christmas and show the mulched leaves in our front garden.

Thankfully, the very early flowers are starting to appear. This week I saw the first witch hazel and Camelia blooms. The Camelia is nothing to write home about because it’s suffering from the cold air but it’s the first of the year and must be recorded.

Finally, I have a new camera to play with and have been learning how to operate in macro mode. I’ve figured out the aperture priority and directed autofocus functions. Unfortunately, I haven’t yet mastered the aperture/depth of field link properly and have yet to deploy the new tripod. My free-form isn’t really good enough for macro. Nevertheless, here are the first shots hot off the presses today.