December wildlife gardening……

A heavy frost at this time can transform the garden and our countryside.  Hoar frosts coat stems, seed heads and branches with a thick rime of crystals producing a photo opportunity not to be missed.  December is inevitably associated in our minds with Christmas, but the observant gardener celebrates another day this month – the winter solstice on the 21st.  It is a day in the gardening (and wildlife) calendar that is probably more significant than any other as it is around this time that song thrushes start to sing, bulbs begin push their new green leaves through the soil and there may even be the occasional great tit investigating the nest boxes in my garden.  It all means that spring (even if it is only in terms of activity and not weather!) is just around the corner.  No sooner have we accepted that winter is upon us than signs of spring appear.  Each new event this month is a reminder that the natural world changes as the days begin, even imperceptibly, to lengthen and we can look forward to the garden bursting into life again.  The hedgerows around my garden may be bare of leaves but they are full of small birds this month, searching for the insects that hibernate amongst the twigs.  Thrushes and blackbirds may be feeding on the holly and hawthorn berries, jays take the remaining acorns from the nearby oak trees and I will listen out for chak-chak’ call of fieldfares overhead – migrants from an even cooler climate than ours.  In the borders there may still be the odd flower on a hebe, lavatera or michaelmas daisy, clinging on in spite of the frosts, but next season’s flowers will also be appearing.  The native stinking hellebore often produces its green, maroon tipped flowers as early as December and they persist well into January and February.  With such a lack of flowers though, more colour in my garden is provided by the variety of mosses, fungi and lichens to be seen particularly on logs, beneath trees and in other shady damp places.  The range of colours amongst these small plants is surprising, from rich dark green to more yellow and orange hues.  In December I leave much of the garden to its own devises, my only thoughts being preparation for the new year ahead.  For me this month is about seed ordering, planning borders and creating new habitats for wildlife – armchair gardening at its best.  http://www.wildlife-gardening.co.uk/country%20life.htm