Not much gardening to be done on the first day in December, you might think. But noted today how the shrubs cut back so drastically just a short while ago are already beginning to put put up new shoots.
The indomitable holly – reduced to little more than a pole – is already sending out new leaves!
Like wise the Quince and the shrub rose.
You don’t expect new growth so late in the season but it is so mild, with little sign of the cold winter that had been predicted back in September.
Less welcome? A plastic bottle thrown over the wall by some ghastly child. I make that assumption by the style and content of the bottle. I hate littering – and hate it even more when people litter my garden!
On better things…
The spider plant given me by my friend Misha is flowering well.
As are my selection of orchids, which, having finished flowering back in June, have been on holiday in the conservatory all summer. I have brought them indoors in case of frosts. I have nine orchid plants and had some of those for up to ten years. Most are showing flowers and/or flower spikes. Tip – they thrive on neglect! I water once a week (or even fortnight!)and feed every third watering.
Following on my blog about overgrown corners I took advantage of a dry day and tackled that Japanese Quince at the weekend. You may recall it looking like this. 
A few weeks ago we called in a professional to 
prune the vastly overgrown holly and prunus that were running amok at the front of the house. (Picture taken early this year – the lawn beneath the tree died in the summer heat and has not yet recovered)
The corner was an impenetrable thicket that was also home to a vast variegated ivy and though good cover for birds was causing damage. (It had already pulled down a brick pillar! illo)
There is also a wasp nest at the base of the prunus which is why I am holding back from full scale works. Waiting for those Jaspers to vanish for the winter!
It would be more precise to say that I have a spindle bush – or even partial hedge at the front of the garden. This shrub leans over the front wall and jostles for position with a variegated privet.
This morning we had a frost – second of the season – and more forecast later in the week so time to give my scented pelargoniums their annual scalping before being stashed in the conservatory for the winter.
One Lemon-scented plant
All are now safely trimmed and tucked away for the winter
Today, once the rain had stopped, I decided that now autumn is truly here, and most of the leaves have dropped from my fig tree, it was time to remove the unripened figs.