WHAT JOBS ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY - 2017

Yes, and it's the fault of me luvverly GC friends who keep mentioning such gawus plants.
I pop them in me Oooo yes please piccy plant folder - LOL im soooo efficient - nah!! it's, really because I'll forget which ones they are
then guess wat im orff on the interweb to track um down - so thanks for that

 

Emptied one of my homemade compost bins and mulched the veg garden with approx 20 wheelbarrows of compost. Most of it was excellent with only the occasional bits not rotted down. Another smaller bin to empty too at some stage.
Not many wallflowers left now to plant out after today.
Started cutting back the rear hedge.....loppers required in places. Enjoy this physical part of gardening
Despite cutting down dahlias, heleniums and the like lots of colour still remains from salvias. (Leucanthemums, elegans, uliginosa, patens, cacalifolia, amistad, love n wishes, embers wishes, etc) anemones, cannas, grasses and more. October has been a good floriferous month
Been warm here today despite the lack of sun

 

I've started to back fill my top soil at last. Today I forked up the clay base. I added 2 bags of horse poo and several barrow loads of bark chippings. I now have a huge pile of top soil that needs cleaning and putting back. Hopefully I will be able to get stuck into it over the weekend.

I'm not as far along as I would liked to have been by now.



This is the other side of my garden. You can see that the neighbours new fence is finally up. it does mean though there is a lot more mess to clear up than there would have been otherwise. That will be next project once the above job is finished. The shed project will have to wait.



G.

 

On 6 jumbo builders bags of beech leaves now, good leaf mould potential.

REMEMBER folks, before lighting bonfires this weekend check for hibernating hogs & toads/the neighbours cat. Pass on the word. They need all the help they can get with their numbers

 

It's still in the ground @JWK

Shiney said to leave it till it's died back

 

After a week of fires in our new fire box (not looking so new now) the massive pile of hawthorn, elder and briar rose has gone. We shredded lots but I prefer to have a burn up, not so noisy and the weather was perfect. I left my wood smoky clothes in the conservatory overnight and the smell was knock out next day .

Today I planted the last of the tulips in the pots, old bath and wheelbarrow. Hope to get a glorious show in the spring. I brought in the salvias and the penstemons into the greenhouse to join the pelargoniums which are still flowering their socks off. Best place for colour in my garden.

The tree feller is coming next week to coppice our huge weeping willow, take down two blackthorns and a western red cedar to give more light to the bottom of the garden. When he's done his work I have the lovely job of redefining the edges of the borders along where the hedge is.

 

Finished cutting the back hedge ......loppers and saw. Took down a 20' sycamore with a bow saw.....tad dicey at the top at first! Left now with a stump 90 cm high and 40 cm wide. Will cut the rest to soil level then use a stump killer.
V. satisfying
Beautiful day, bit breezy.

 

Cleared the gully of leaves - it was an uphill task The gully is sloped and each time I managed to get the pile *almost* to my gate, the wind would whisk them up again!
In the end, I adopted the "Curling" technique: place broom behind pile and ... RUN!

Did some weeding - this mild weather and the spit spot of rain we've had is enough for the perishers to be poking their tongues out at me; so, I gave them a bit of what for!

Now the new build is exposed at the rear of my garden, so am I!
I manoeuvred benches and seats on the patio and then pots to try and find a "sheltered" spot for those moments I enjoy having a quiet moment out there After 3 attempts of moving benches/pots, moving them again and then moving one last time, I think I've achieved a quiet nook which isn't going to expose me and yet still look appealing from the back door Now I need to spend some time thinking of how I can achieve a bit more privacy with permanent plantings. Ah well, that'll be a job for winter: plotting and planning.

 

One of my favourite things to do This morning I finished clearing the small sunny bed next to the coldframe; it's right in front of the patio and anything tall there blocks the rest of the garden. Currently thinking I might put a layer of gravel over the surface and turn it into an alpine bed next spring...

 

An alpine bed is on my to do list too 2nd bassoon.
Maybe get some of that gravel in the top few inches of soil too...??

 

Remember folks, frost forecast for a lot of us -1/-2 predicted here tonight. Got in my tender Agastache. Put some fleece around a few bits, didn't have the energy to dig up certain fuchsias for one night of forecast, next 2 weeks looks like 6/7c at night so a shame as they are in full flower