And so to bed . . . dear garden :o)

This past 16 months, my poor garden has been sadly neglected. My time has been taken up by *circumstances beyond my control* & although those circumstances are unlikely to improve, I am determined to exercise my green fingers once again & try to keep the garden looking as good as it should next year :o)

I made a start yesterday & put the garden to bed for the winter. I gave all the bushes a rather drastic hair cut - they now have 2 choices in the spring: to grow or not to grow !! :o) The bushes in the rockery were lovely & bushy, but all the leaves were at the end of 3 foot branches, so I decided to hack them all off & now, my rockery is see through :o) I cut so much off all over the garden, the entire length of the decking  - over 20ft - was covered in a waist high rubbish pile. We have a dumping area at the end of the garden, so that's where I lobbed it. My brother in law helped & he went over the fence & jumped up & down to squish it into a more manageable pile :o)  It might look a bit of a mess, but I'm not getting rid of it cos it's a real little wildlife haven  - I've seen hedgehogs, foxes, various butterflies & birds flitting around there. It's my little bit of *back to nature* :o)

This is just some of the stuff I cut back :o) That's my brother in law cutting it into smaller bits to bung over the back :o)

The see-through rockery with the hacked back bushes :o) A few months ago, grandson no. 1a helped me plant 200 or so bulbs in the front & middle. It looks like I may have to get something for the back, a splash of colour for early spring before the rose, choisya & whatever the other bush is, grow back.

Goodnight fruit cage, thank you for the lovely raspberries, blackberries, loganberries, red currants & black currants you supplied us with this year. We had a real bumper crop :o)

Goodnight veg plot - we'll try better next year, won't we ?!! :o)

 Goodnight Seaside garden/mini-Dungeness, Kit's Korner & bench. It won't be long before I'm back bird-watching from the bench with grandson no. 1a, looking through  *noculars* made from loo role tubes:o) Grandson no. 1b may even join us, if he can sit still long enough :o)

Goodnight, greenhouse. Sleep well because you are going to be VERY busy come the early spring :o) Don't worry though - you'll have a good wash & scrub before I expect you to do your thing :o)

Over the years, we've come up with little garden projects,  so maybe over the winter, we'll be able to come up with a little something for 2012 :o)  Something with an Olympic flavour, perhaps ?

Hmmm . . . what can I do with 5 coloured rings in a garden ? Answers on a postcard please !! :o)