Wandering round the Christmas market on Saturday gave me the spurt  I needed to reassess the area around our front door. Now we never enter our house via our front door so it’s inclined to get a bit neglected in the winter. But seeing all those festive wreaths  and pretty white hellebores on display meant I couldn’t neglect it any longer. Time to make a start…

So first stop the large raised pot in the north-facing front porch; not much survives here though we persisted with bright begonias in reference to our street name ‘Begonialaan’. The poor things had to be propped up with stakes as they got leggy, and now the frost, so out they came.

I already have some topiaried box plants in pots in this area which seem to thrive…

So it made sense to pop some box balls into this pot – a smart, low maintenance solution.

This one was a bit pot-bound, so a good water and then tease out the roots.

The husband had bought some ‘Red Fire’ tulip bulbs so I placed them alongside the box in the planting hole for a splash of colour later in the year.

We are surrounded by woodland…

Winter sunlight on the trees

but the amount of leaves littering the drive can be daunting, so time for the clean-up.

It’s good to see some colour in the garden in the form of  red berries

and the odd resilient rose

And now for the final flourish on the box balls.

A small step on the way to Christmas.

Lots more ideas for giving your garden some Christmas cheer here :  5 ways to add interest to your winter garden.

(All photography mine; feel free to use any of Jardin’s images but please credit and link back)