My Garden Without Snow In December. A Merry Christmas!

December has arrived, a cold and dark month. I try to go for walks on sunny days, even though the sun rarely shines.

When I arrive at my summer cottage,I immediately turn on the electric heaters. It's difficult to warm up the house quickly because the temperature inside is the same as outside (+3°C to +1°C), but after a while, it becomes warm and cozy. 

Then I go into the garden, and after leaving the warm cottage, it's nice to stroll around, take photos, and then have a cup or two of hot tea with sandwiches and something sweet.

 

Rhododendrons thrive in this cool and damp weather. They tolerate light snow and rain well. Flower buds for the coming spring are clearly visible on the branches.
 

My thuja and silver fir are also happy that there is no frost or snow, because heavy snow can break their branches.

Here I show the plants in the garden last year, when there was a lot of snow.

Sometimes I come into the garden and there's very little snow. If the temperature rises during the day, the snow will have melted by evening.  This year, the sky is often gray and unwelcoming. 

Christmas and New Year are coming soon. I want to congratulate you all and wish you the very best, most importantly, health. If you celebrate national holidays in December, then I congratulate you too!

Wishes for a Merry Christmas! 

Faith, Hope, Love!

 Vera, Nadezda, Lubov! 

Winter Forest

 

 

 

 

 I made this short video to show you how beautiful the forest is in winter.  

I hope you enjoy it.

Take care! 

Rock Garden

Today I want to tell you about my visit to a rock garden, or alpine slide. I arrived at the Botanical Garden on a rainy day and had already given up hope of taking beautiful photos. But within half an hour, I was no longer paying attention to the drizzle, as the alpine plants amazed me with their arrangement among the stones, boulders, and rock formations.

 

The alpine garden features all kinds of natural stones: sea or river pebbles, sandstone, limestone, crushed stone, and gravel. It's worth noting that stone is the foundation of all structures: alpine slides, rockeries, dry streams, bridges, retaining structures, and garden paths.

I liked the look of the old boulders. The gravel mixture near the plantings imitates a dry stream. The alpine slide lacks any symmetry; all the garden paths, paved with stones or tiles, twist and turn. 

 

I noted that most of the garden plants are perennials: this gives the rock garden the most natural look and saves time and effort on maintenance.

 

 

Ducks kept the rock garden in order, glaring at me to make sure I didn't disturb it.

 

The designers and gardeners at the Botanical Garden used low-growing, slow-growing conifers, combining plants with different colors and crown shapes. Furthermore, conifers can create the perfect natural environment, far removed from human intervention.

This beautiful alpine rock garden was an unexpected discovery for me.