Just call it a wildflower and leave it alone

I'm not too fussy about weeding but I try to keep on top of anything that will obscure or swamp more favoured plants.  As the old American saying goes "One year's seeding makes seven years' weeding" so any self-respecting lazy gardener will deal with weeds as quickly as possible. Obviously, you can minimize work by calling most weeds "wild flowers" and leaving them alone.

Trimming Ferns so I can see the snowdrops.

I tend to leave last year's fern leaves as long as they still look reasonable. However, the snowdrops are showing colour, so it's time for a short back and sides.

Pulling up cleavers seedlings.

While I was uncovering the snowdrop flowers, I noticed cleavers (goosegrass) seedlings coming up. These overtake, and start sticking to other plants, very quickly indeed so it saves a lot of time untangling them if I whip the seedlings out before they get a chance to do that.  A quick glance at the photo shows that I have left the magnolia leaves where they have fallen in this woodland area.

Bird table back in its rightful place.

A month or two back the bird table came crashing down in high winds. It has been waiting for me to fix it ever since. It clearly wasn't going to happen so I've bodged it up with some wire and will deal with it properly later. Much later. At least this way, it's in place for next weekend's birdwatch.

Confessions of a Lazy Gardener

It's not so much that I am lazy, it's just that I prefer looking at wildlife - birds, butterflies, wildflowers etc. rather than doing grown up things like weeding. After all, those butterflies won't chase themselves.

The Christmas tree in its Yuletide glory

At Christmas I enjoy dressing and being with a real tree - particularly the smell of it. However, all good things come to an end and on the 12th Day of Christmas, I packed the decorations and lights away and put the tree outside. Over the next few weeks, I will be using some of the ideas in Aly Fowler's article What to do with your Christmas tree to make sure that not a scrap of our tree is wasted.

Removing branches from the tree.

I've removed a number of branches from the tree and clipped the needles and smallest twigs into pieces to use a mulch. I sprinkled pieces that were too big on one of our muddy paths.

Christmas tree mulch sprinkled under the heather.

I sprinkled the mulch under heathers. Soon, I will make some more mulch for the camelias. According to Alys Fowler:

The needles of fir trees make excellent ericaceous compost, perfect for pleasing blueberries, cranberries, bilberries, heathers and azaleas.

We stopped using peat some time ago and maybe Christmas tree needles will prove a useful substitute.