What are we doing in the garden 2024

Yesterday was a no no for anything outside due to the severe conditions, although it was ok for my walk, and only the last 15 minutes were wet and getting windier. There was a reasonably dry spell early afternoon, but I was busy with other things by then.
Today is to be the calm before the storm though, so I'll try and get some more pots planted with bulbs etc, and maybe some stuff put into the front garden before daughter comes over later on.

 

After a wet night the soil will be too wet for working on, however there's some jobs to be done in the greenhouse. Also a dumpy bag of last years leaves needs to be spread as this years leaves are beginning to drop off the oaks. Then maybe plant out some wallflowers and sweet williams at the front of the beds.

 

Third day in a row of heavy rain so the only 'gardening' will be starting to get the big terrace pots under the roof, ready for winter. Most are in half-barrels on wheels, so easily done, but the tricky bit is that the climbers have covered their wooden trellis panels, so it takes two to move them. One to wheel the container and one to keep up with the top-growth. I try to keep cutting back to a minimum, mostly because I can't resist doing cuttings with the prunings and really, really don't need any more plants

 

They're impressive @noisette47 !

 

Another day where i cannot get on the garden at all - heavy rain overnight which has topped up the floodwater in the adjacent field. From past experience all i can do now is wait.

 

Thanks! They've put on lots of leaf but not been very floriferous this year, still, it's better than looking at concrete

 

Today I decided to remove an old Hydrangea which had become woody and a bit lacklustre! Easy. No, it took ages to dig it out from the narrow border in my lower garden, while trying not to make a muddy mess on the paving . Once removed, I beefed the soil up a bit with some compost and planted a Mahonia Winter Sun in its place. It should have enough space to make a good display once it gets established. Digging is hard work in a tight space. It took as much time to clear up afterwards as I got mud everywhere .

Here’s some before and after photos.

 

Nothing today it's been raining again.

 

I personally like the leaves of the Hydrangea more than the static looking Mahonia leaves. While visiting a GC looking for an Eremurus, I saw plenty of Mahonia mostly red, which makes it to me even less attractive.
Your yellow one looks nice, but I wonder how happy you will be with its look once it grows bigger. The RHS website says 4 meters high. I suppose you will keep it small.

I mention that because I started to stake my Spirea which impacted by the heavy winds already had a 45 degree angle. Now, each of the newly grown stems is secured to grow straight upwards, hoping, once they are strong enough, I can remove the supporting canes.

I wasn't able to find an Eremurus in any of the surrounding garden centres and so I ordered one from Harts and got it delivered yesterday, which I planted immediately. Not sure if that will work, but let's wait until summer.
It seems to be a bad year for Eremurus robustus, because Sarah Raven also removed it from her page (checked in September and it said available from the 16th of October), and Harts also replaced my order Eremurus robustus with a Eremurus Himalayan. The website says Eremurus robustus is out of stock.

 

That'l lwork well there @Plantminded, and the flowers will give a burst of colour for this time of year. Mahonias change colour, like many shrubs, according to variety and conditions, so red foliage is normal.
I love them - fantastic for wildlife. Easy to prune hard back, so no problem with size. Mine forms part of my boundary and is a great windbreak, along with the adjacent holly and laurel.
I took this yesterday


I did quite a lot yesterday, including giving the grass a trim as I didn't get round to it a couple of weeks ago. I've never cut grass this late in the year. Got a couple more coats of paint on pots, and they'll need another one or two. Planted bulbs. Concreted a dodgy post after making some shuttering for it - two more need doing, but I'll need more gravel for that. Pruned some wayward stems/branches on a potentilla which will give it a better shape next year.
It was pleasant enough for sitting now and again with a cuppa too, and washed the cars with daughter when she came over later.
It's supposed to clear a bit in the afternoon today, so I'll just potter a bit, and check anything likely to be disrupted with the serious winds for tonight.

 

Thank you @fairygirl, that’s an impressive specimen you have there . Even before I’d planted mine I noticed a bee investigating the unopened flowers. That area in my garden needs some winter colour and I was pleased to remove the old Hydrangea which was looking increasingly miserable. No room for misery here .

 

It was a lovely day yesterday We visited nearby nature reserve and walked around for a couple of hours in hazy autumn sunshine.


Then it was time to attack the garden. Potted up 45 Narcissus Minnow, 30 Tete a Tetes, prepared Hyacinths and some shop bought garlic. Everything went into containers as the soil is still getting dug up for planting. I just needed to plant something and wanted a bit of anything for spring.

Excavations continue, I managed to clear around the inherited Cordyline, minus one Aquilegia which just will not move. I'll have to mulch around the Cordy this winter, it was sheltered amongst tall grass and weeds but is now quite exposed.

Before:



After:



If the weather gets a bit more merciful today I'll try to sieve out some of the brick rubble. The areas in front of fences have a layer of plastic, then paving slabs carefully set on spade deep of the rubble. It's not bad, but I'd prefer a bit less there and a bit more in my future gravel path.

In general the soil here is wonderful, easy to dig crumbly clay full of worms. I probably don't need to do much, just add some manure perhaps and the planting can start.

I must say this morning that two hours walk plus a couple of hours digging yesterday reminded me of some facts of life. Well, I'll either be very fit by spring, or something else...

 

I like Hydrangeas too @simone_in_wiltshire and have a couple of H. paniculata Limelight in the garden which I like, even when they start to fade! The one I removed yesterday was a H. macrophylla variety and one of the few plants remaining from when I moved here. I suspect it was decades old and had had its day . I like the tropical look of Mahonias, their leaf habit goes well with ferns and grasses I think. They don't grow that fast initially and that variety is upright and can easily be pruned to shape. I don't like the red flowered Mahonia or the one called Soft Caress which didn't like my garden either .

 

A mahonia fan here. I have a bed next to our gates which is in partial shade thanks to the neighbour's trees and shrub (and brambles and other nasties) on the boundary so the soil is poor too and can get very dry. i boost it every year with compost but little copes well. I planted one mahonia soon after we moved here and it is growing slowly, but healthily and provides form and lovely colour plus plentiful nectar for bumble bees in an otherwise quiet time of year.

I've recently planted two more mahonias in the same bed which is about 5m long and has the space. Not a lot else is happy there but I've underplanted those with erigeron karvinskianus, big fat cyclamen corms from another dry bed and some autumn daffs.

I like hydrangeas too. Couldn't grow the mopheads in our last garden as the top growth died of fright every winter so we never got old growth that produced flowers. Paniculatas did well tho and I brought a couple with me. Limelight has succumbed to drought despite being protected from midday sun and getting watered but Vanille Fraise is OK so far. I've yet to find a quercifolia but have seen them in other gardens so I know they're about.

No gardening today unfortunately. Heavy rain yesterday and overnight on top of all the recent storms has left the garden positively oozing so we're only walking between the house and the veg plot to see to the chooks. Dry days coming up tho so maybe I can finally get around to planting some bulbs and other stuff later this week.

 

With Storm Ashley battering the North of the UK, it's gale force winds and horizontal rain here today. I got my stepping stone path through my wood finished yesterday, but today is definitely an indoor day, so all I've done is wash out some plant pots.