What's Going on in the Garden this Month

What's Happening in our New Forest Hotel Garden this December

December has arrived! 

The days are currently wet, cold and dark; with the shortest day of the year only a couple of weeks away (22nd December). You shouldn’t however let this stop you from getting outdoors. Whether it’s a walk in the forest or along the beach, spending time in your garden or allotment, getting some fresh air and exercise at this time of year will work wonders for your well-being. 

Our Christmas decorations have recently gone up, bringing some much needed colour and light to the indoors. A special thank you to the team at Corbins florist for doing such a wonderful job. 

Due to the recent cold spell we had, our gardeners insulated the greenhouse with bubble wrap to keep tender plants and seedlings warm until spring. The Echiums and trachycarpus have been wrapped in a protective fleece along with our banana plant; this gives them the best chance of survival over the coldest parts of winter. 

Things have really started to slow down for our gardeners, allowing a bit of a breather from the usual demands a garden has, giving them time to focus on other jobs which end up low on the to do list, along with a few important jobs that can be done at this time of the year. 

We’ve listed some for you below: 

• Removing brambles, stinging nettles and other unwanted weeds
• organising pots, tools and seed packets
• pruning elderflower, apple and pear trees 
• putting branches collected over the last few months through the chipper and using this as a mulch on flower beds 
• continuing to collecting leaves for flower bed mulch, the leaf mould pile and as habitat piles 
• cleaning bird baths and topping up with fresh water regularly 
• planning which vegetables to grow next year 
• continuing to clear dead foliage from perennials and adding to the compost 

Our gardeners would like to thank all our guests that took time to speak with them this year, whether it was about the hotel garden or their own, sharing ideas about how we can protect and support our wildlife, and for just being smiling faces that would show appreciation to the hard work they put in. 

We wish you all a Happy Christmas and look forward to welcoming you back into our New Forest garden next year. 

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