WHAT JOBS ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY 2018

How is your chilli sauce going Big?

 

Hi @Logan
I got sidetracked so to speak..son was rushed into hospital for Gall Bladder removal and things haven't exactly gone to plan with Bile removal and stents ...but I'll get back on top of the sauce topic once the dust settles here....plus I've a toybox to finish......Boxes for Kids

 

Picked a few more tomatoes, fed and watered the chooks and ferret, did a bit of house keeping (yes I am a man), now going to pour out a lovely glass of cider and chill out with the hairies (dogs)

 

Lovely, breezy autumn day here... did the first end of season jobs by clearing out the various pots of annual herbs and whatnots cluttering the area behind the kitchen door. For a moment it looked very tidy. Then the inevitable happened...

Have-pots-must-plant So I planted up the winter doorstep delight with Helleborus and some just rooted variegated Vinca cuttings, and added some Crocus. I was left with half a bag of Crocus bulbs so they went into a pot. Since I had two more of those posh artstone pots, I opened the other bag of Crocus bulbs and potted them as well. Hopefully the neighbour who appreciates posh things will be impressed with them. Sadly, the labels have worn off the pots. (I'm not a great fan of Crocus but these were forced on me. Naughty Wilkos put them together with Alliums I absolutely had to have . )

Picked the last outdoor baby plum tomatoes and took the chilli plants in. I'm not sure if they enhance the decor but hey, they are very tasty and free, grown from seeds scavenged from Tesco chillies. Same as the baby plum tomatoes which are faithful croppers but rather unpredictable when it comes to the plant behaviour. This summer I had one container with very upright 150cm tall plants and another with trailing, bushy plants. Both gave excellent fruit, and for free


The alpine strawberries went into the big tomato planter as they had totally outgrown their washing up bowl sized pretty artstone planter. I grew them from dust-like seed this year and in May had about five very spindly plantlets which I thought would take years to fill their new home... not so. I'll have to divide the jungle next spring.

It was also very rewarding to take a sneaky peek into the "hopeless row" of random cuttings tucked in the messy corner. A lot of root growing is happening

 

Hope your son is ok BigC

Checked my own cuttings too........all looking good. Main thing here is not to let them dry out.
Planted divisions of astilbe Shogun plus potted a couple of roots. Ditto with astilbe Cappuccino. Divided stipa tennuissima and potted them up plus verbena bonariensis seedlings.

Gave away some plants today.....a dahlia (never took to but friend thought was beautiful ), a couple of salvias and sanguisorbas. She also had 50 mixed daffodil bulbs....they were free with an order but I dont like planting out such mixtures; prefer planting groups of same varieties. Anyway, a happy neighbour

 

Thanks @Verdun..I'm sure everything will turn out fine but there have been a few disconcerting problems along the way coupled with the much noticeable decline of the NHS...

Today I tidied up the garden in preparation for Autumn/Winter. It's amazing how disengaged everything gets after the blooms of Summer have gone. Still work to be done though and I'm actually looking forward to clearing the greenhouse, getting it all into shape for next season and planning which species to concentrate on...This is my second season of growing chilli peppers, some sp. seem to do well for me were as others fail miserably but saying that this year was miles better than the last (might have been the heatwave)...Looking to the future..lol here is this afternoon's little haul

 

Busy with the sack barrow again. The med and tropical areas of the garden are looking naked after most of the tubs have been put to bed until spring

 

Not a lot to be honest lots to do though!
I've sorted the seed from lupin heads cut down weeks ago and that was about it really
I'm thinking about starting some sweet peas this autumn, I usually just sow in spring. I did have a good early crop a few years ago but I can't remember when I sowed Anyone else bothering with an autumn sowing?

 

Finished stripping the pergola today just the roof and posts to go, replacing the hexagonal pergola with...an hexagonal pergola...none sensical? well i saw why I did it originally and liked it again, big difference this time is I did the first one on a budget, no on a shoestring, this time fortunately able to buy proper tanalised wood and a bit more knowledgeable and have got the right size and angles thanks to Scrungee.

 

Ok, I'll admit I'm naked but I have just had a bath!

 

@ARMANDII