My Garden Journal 2024 December

This will be my final visit to my Garden Journal in 2024 as I share my entries for December.

I began by writing “December is going to be a month of repairing all the damage that rough weather has caused in the garden. The worst affected plants are tall grasses and perennials, all bent flat to the ground.”

“Patches of the garden are now unrecognisable.”

Below I share eight photos of the destruction.

On the opposite page I considered hellebores especially the ones already flowering and I noted that, “Early flowering hellebores are such a special treat when they open up in December. There is a smaller range of colours now than in the new year. Some also have beautiful foliage.”

Over onto the next double page spread I featured hellebores with interesting foliage and opposite I look at gardening tasks for December.

I wrote, “The foliage of hellebores can vary so much in colour, texture and shape. Many are silver or delicately patterned.”

Delicate yellow pattern. Glaucous with jagged edges

Patterned foliage. Glaucous smooth foliage.

Palmate bright green foliage. Patterned foliage.

Most cut leaved of our hellebores. Removing old foliage.

Moving on to consider gardening tasks for the month, I wrote, “Throughout December we tried ticking jobs off our winter jobs list. This was totally in the hands of the weather.”

Bundling up clump of broken tall stems. Tidying fastigiate Yew.

Trimming ‘Buddleja lindleyana’.

The next page features our hollies. I wrote that, “When we revamped the two large terracotta pots by our front door we added a holly to each one. These new hollies called Ilex Golden King, have foliage of glossy gold and green. They sit alongside another holly called “Little Rascal”.

Little Rascal Black stemmed holly

Our native holly in our hedge. Topiary hollies

So December in the garden has come to an end and likewise the year 2024. My next report of “My Garden Journal” will be for January 2025.