What are we doing in the garden 2024

Husband has just removed an enormous and tatty old mock orange for me. It's a shame as it was quite old and has done well in the past, and the birds liked to sit in it but was starting to get a bit bare in places. Also it's a small garden and it didn't really have enough seasonal interest for me.

In its place I am planting a Crataegus Paul's Scarlet. Feeling very excited for the benefits to wildlife and hoping it brings me a greater variety of birds in years to come!

 

We managed to scale the ladder to reach into the gutters and remove various debris including self seeded seedlings. There will obviously be more but it has been a dry day so far so the work needed to be done.

 

Today I have planted bulbs in pots for next spring (to be planted out either before or after flowering, when I can see where the spaces are), picked the last of the tomatoes to ripen indoors and taken down the tomato plants for composting.

 

I rearranged some plants in a border, planted some verbascum snowyspires at the back and clumps of hardy geraniums in front of them.

 

Digging.

The grass and assorted gigantic weeds are coming out bit by bit, leaving behind lovely black soil, ready to welcome new weeds.

Anyways, this job needs to be done this winter so that planting can start in earnest in spring. My JParkers order has been dispatched so soon I will be a happy owner of 10 Bergenia plug plants to go between the path and the pond and a bit beyond (I like things in drifts), two ferns and a Juniper I really don't know what to do with.

But I like Junipers and at £5.99, who am I to blow against the wind?

Oh yes, and a bulb or two ...

Heroically I resisted Alliums, they are high on my favourite plants- list but will have to wait until next year when I have some sort of skeleton planting in place.

Things look pretty grim at the moment but inside my head I'm already admiring the lush greenness and rich wildlife to come. (The pigeons have already started hacking into my pigeon proof expensive bird feeder .) Plus I'm very lucky with the soil, it's good rich clay with traces of cultivation obviously dating back before previous bachelor type of living (you know, gloss black bathroom tiles with glittery bits).

I think they had a compost too.

By the fences is a layer of paving slabs with plastic and and a thick layer of broken bricks underneath. That's fun digging out! But underneath.... mmmm... healthy soil with loads of worms

I'm trying to sieve the broken brick rubble out to be used as the base layer for the gravel path. So far my makeshift sieving station (the square thing made of heavy edging I keep digging up (that will be the path edging upside down- I dislike scalloping!) and metal mesh from the fences (I wonder what needed to be kept in so carefully- or out ) ) is sort of doing the job, but seen the quantities coming up from the sides of the fences I will probably need something a bit more efficient.



Tomorrow I'm in for a birthday treat (day off from work), a visit to Cowell's garden centre with The Child, with potential lunch.

Just counted, that's seven pairs of brackets () I have used typing this down. (My mind apparently tends to wonder mid-sentence...sorry! )

(Eight)

 

I've been busy putting some stone flags down finally. I've had to smash some back out on the steps they can a bit of a lean on them causing water to pool so done that as well. I've ran out of sand so it come to a halt which is probably a good thing, lumbering these stone flags round multiple times put a bit of stain on the body so a well earn rest. Still need some more stone but some will probably pop up for free on facebook market .

The big planter is going to be the Gunnera new home next year, Think I may leave it on these flags as a centre piece . Need to put a soak away in at the bottom of the flags but that's a job for next year maybe .

 

@Perki Gunnera? In a tub? Do you think it will manage?

 

[I know what you mean @Selleri ....]
It's all about what you can visualise with a new, or bare, plot isn't it? I love planning, but I'm also someone who changes stuff as I get bored, hence the ongoing stuff.
Birthday treat for me too, although my birthday's tomorrow, but one daughter is working, so I'm getting some cake later. 21 again. Might need the fire brigade standing by if I'm honest....

Managed to get most of my raised bed finished, but it wasn't ideal weather for paint drying, so I should get that done today as it's already shaping up to be nice and sunny. Other than that, just the usual bit of deadheading, bird feeders done, and a little bit of secateur/snip cleaning and oiling. There's a single branch on the Amelanchier which needs trimmed back, but I'll have to bite the bullet and get the bigger ladder out to reach it. I'm about half an inch from reaching the point I want to nick it back to, so it's either the bigger ladder, or the smaller one but nipping it back lower down.

 

@Perki Is it because it's been banned/considered invasive, in some places, that gunnera you're keeping yours in a tub?

I'm going out to do some brickwork. Okay, I lied, I have loose bricks that need to be stacked, and neatly this time, which is what I will do today

 

Late afternoon today, I had 41 tree ring stepping stones delivered and moved them all to their approximate positions through the woodland. They all need digging in to about 50% depth and then I'll probably use bark around them, up to where the Bluebells, Snowdrops and Daffodils are planted. I wanted some firm footing, as there are places that are damp and sloped, particularly around the back to the North West.

I've got an appointment right in the middle of the day tomorrow, so probably won't be making a start until I'm home after lunch.

 

Yesterday i dug up the gladioli and today planted a lot of tulips and some left over wallflowers there.

 

I was still out in the garden in the dark this evening. This time, not working in the garden, but photographing Comet/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, from the garden.

 

Superb!

 

@CarolineL @CanadianLori Haven't got much choice to put it in a tub for now it a good size 65L, it were for the bog garden but that fell through when it was re classed as invasive , the bog garden isn't my land its on a garage site next my home ( hope to buy one day ) so I could be liable I suppose planting it there , I don't think anyone would be bothered but it could also get nicked they is a public footpath next to it I may struggle to get another if it vanished . The Gunnera still young so hopefully be fine for a 2 or 3 years until a sort the shed out in the back garden.

 

Didn't do a lot yesterday apart from finishing the raised bed, and another one which a peony is in. It hadn't been finished as I had a Hebe in front of it, so you couldn't see the top of the edging anyway. That's been cut back, so it was a chance to do that one as well.
Did lots of sitting and enjoying the beautiful sunny weather, watching the birds, and having tea and cake for my birthday, which is today, but both daughters are working, so we had the cake yesterday instead.
Sowed some seed of various types. Today is to be back to murky/cloudy, so I might do some other inside jobs, although if I get a chance, I might give the grass a light trim to keep it neat for the rest of the autumn/winter. The edges need a trim, so that would sort it all out. It's very rare to need to cut grass in October here though, but it's been so mild.