I was looking out over the front garden just the other week and was thinking you wouldn't know it isn't summer. The garden looked in full bloom with hydrangeas, lavenders, roses, daphne and honeysuckle still flowering. Many of the summer annuals were still flowering in their pots - in fact they've looked so lovely I haven't got around to swapping them over with winter bedding plants yet. I've usually replanted the pots and baskets long before now, but it's been a mild autumn and the plants have been thriving rather than dying back. It seemed a shame to uproot them for new ones yet.
As November came to an end, December and the meteorological beginning of winter arrived - officially winter and with it came the cold, ice and heavy frost. The heavy frost turned the garden into a whole new world of white, transforming its look and all the plants into something new and magical.
Of course, those last summer plants have begun to fade now after the heavy frost and it's time to get my skates on and replace them with some winter bedding before the year is out. It's a milder week weatherwise so it's an ideal time to put the garden to bed for winter, do a last tidy and visit the garden centre before the winter bedding plants are all sold out and replaced with Christmas trees and Christmas decorations.
