Garden rubbish

Apart from a brief spell around last weekend, and into the start of the past week, where temperatures driving to work were in the -3C to -5C range, winter hasn't really arrived -- we've just had an extended autumn.

The cold finally did for the the antirrhinum flowers, and the last signs of life in the sunflowers, which are still serving as bird-feeders; but we still have overwintering escholzias; self-sown poached-egg plants from last summer's flowering already in bloom, primroses since before the end of last year, and now snowdrops and the first of the early crocuses.

I have at least been able to tend to a number of the tidy-up chores : pruning roses, fuchsias and apple trees; clearing out the straw from various dead annuals, and the last year's growth from the crocosmias and lemon balm.

And of course there are weeds already -- including a fine old crop of winter wheat from the porridge-like mass of spilt grain out of the bird feeder, as well as the usual stubborn perennials, misplaced self-seedings and the like. Which all means that the green bin is continually being put out full, even in the putative low season.

If it were drier, there'd even be grass clippings, as the mild wet weather is encouraging the lawn already!