I haven’t done any gardening for ages. It’s a combination of two things: the very mild winter, and leaving things to die down naturally.

I’m experimenting with things dying back/ rotting down naturally – and almost nothing is completely dead. Something things (like the marigolds & even the geraniums on Edie’s windowsill) are still flowering; and lots of plants are still growing. Very few things have died back – and even those that have – like the fern – still look quite soft, like there is still nutrient in the rotting leaves that might go back into the roots. Here is the rose and the salvia in flower and the bears’ breeches in the other garden are flowering too

I’ve seen bees and flies and even the odd butterfly. I think this is the weirdest season I’ve ever seen and I dread to think how the natural world can adapt to deal with it.

The only thing that’s really died (back) is my crab apple – and that’s because Luke hit his cricket ball into it and smashed the stem in half. Humph. Here’s what’s left and what came off, stuck round the front gate as a festive decoration.