About my garden

Monday 7 January 2019

Twiglets In a Vase on Monday

I miss the flowers but anything blooming in my garden just now is looking sad and sorry for itself. 
Christmas is put away for another year so I hung up this vase again and added a few Alder twigs. The have good shapes and make shadows on the wall. I had some ivy around the door frame for Christmas. 


I think I've shown this vase before. It doesn't hold much water so is better suited to dry material. 

I made an exciting discovery during the week. I've been out every day, in spite of the cold, clearing and tidying. My aim is to go right round the garden but we'll see how far I get before the weather gets horrible or I'm distracted by other things. 
I was raking up leaves under a beech tree. Now I never usually get round to doing this under this tree. Time is a luxury I have this year. There is a clump of grass under the tree which I don't really like and always mean to remove. Making good progress with the leaves I found that a huge pile had collected against the grass so I started to pull them out only to discover a hedgehog hiding in there. I apologised and quickly piled the leaves back on, added some more and some beech twigs on top for good measure. I hope he/she/they weren't disturbed. I looked again the next day and the heap is still there so hopefully they are tucked up inside and hardly noticed my clumsiness. 
I'll probably never know but I will be leaving that grass now. I have seen hedgehogs around on summer evenings but have never found a nest. Does anyone know if they breed in the same place as hibernating?

Just to cheer us all up in the gloomy days. I'm sowing some sweet peas seeds and trying to keep them away from the mice!

Pop over to Cathy at Rambling in the Garden to see what everyone has found to go In a Vase on Monday. 

12 comments:

  1. How exciting to know there are hedgehogs hibernating in your garden...and that you know where. The stems of Alder are lovely...I like the way they hang onto the cones. It looks very effective in you wall base. Alder is such a prevalent tree on the levels, and I like it to the extent that in a previous garden I planted a Alnus glutinosa Imperialis.

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    1. It's not a tree I know much about so I should read your post and learn. You have a vast plant knowledge.

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  2. I love the alder twigs too, and where they can make shadows is even better. I did a double take when I first your sweet pea picture!! Incidentally, I had recently checked when I planted out my Winter Sunshine ones into the greenhouse bed, and it was the end of Jan. This year I need to remember to pot on my others at the same time

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    1. I should be looking for more twigs to bring in to force. Even if they don't open the shapes are interesting. Thanks for checking about the sweet peas.

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  3. "Twiglets"! That made me chuckle. Very interesting vase, too.

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    1. I meant to add that 'Twiglets' are a snack here in the UK. I'm not sure about the rest of the world. Crunchy little savoury sticks.

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  4. The twigs and vase work well together and the shadows cast are an added bonus. Very exciting to find a hedgehog in your garden. We don't have them here but they look adorable in pictures.

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    1. They do look adorable but not very cuddly. :)

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  5. I love both the vase and the twigs casting those wonderful shadows on the wall. There are no hedgehogs here but I had a similar experience about a week ago with a hibernating lizard. I was cleaning up after cutting back a climbing Pelargonium and disturbed his nap. Like you, I was quick with my apologies and left the debris behind the vine in the hope he'd excuse the intrusion.

    My sweet pea seedlings are coming up. There's no sign of the rabbits that chewed the seedlings to the ground last year but birds have been a problem. It's always something...

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    1. Exciting, hopefully the lizard will be fine. I didn't know they hibernated. As you say there is always something to battle with. I have greenfly on some of my overwintering seedlings so need to go and tackle that. It's hard when you don't use chemicals.

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  6. How lovely to discover a hedgehog in the garden, I've only seen one here once but I sometimes see droppings that I think might be one, I do hope so. Thanks for showing the Sweet Peas, I know they aren't flowering now but I have to admit I'm already fed up with evergreens and dried material. although your interesting vase really shows your twigs to advantage.

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