What are we doing in the garden 2024

@CanadianLori . You must be getting close to getting snow now - are you winning the race to be ready for winter?

 

I think that i don't get all of the roots out so they sprout again.

 

I know what you mean , in the past i have cut to ground level after flowering has finished , turned my back and the area is covered in a couple of inches of fresh growth.

 

@Robert Bowen we usually are on the cusp of dustings of snow at this time but we had a wonderful warm spell. That is until today. It is now just above freezing. I do remember it snowing some Hallowe'ens but usually the serious stuff doesn't fall until late November. Until then, it's just bitter in the night then gets above freezing during the day.

It is supposed to warm up a bit (17c maybe) next week for a day or two and I might take that opportunity to cut down some dead branches on a tree. I wouldn't mind getting them cut up and stored for firewood for next year. Guess I'd better grab some chain saw oil to be ready for that.

 

I wanted to cut the Grass, but It's still too wet even with the Sun
shining. I should have bought a cordless mower

 

@CanadianLori I was in Toronto 5 years ago as of now and the weather was surprisingly good , T shirts most of the time but the day we left it dropped very cold and on the way to the airport from Union Station it started snowing , it seemed we left at the right time .

 

Busiest day in the garden for some time. Feeling the benefit from cutting the grass yesterday although the ground is still a little too soft for my liking for back and forth jobs but just have to make the best of it. Compost bay 1 is now rammed to capacity and bay 3 virtually empty as its been used for mulching. Back to the soft ground , i have been using heavy duty plastic gravel grids as walk boards for a couple of years now . I move them regularly but i have found them very useful especially in the wetter part of the year ( so anytime between Jan 1- Dec 31 inclusive) to prevent excessive wear on the grass. The rain is back tomorrow so Mrs B has some painting lined up for me to finish off the kitchen . Also been ripening toms in the potting shed and Mrs B wants to get those blitzed down to bottle tomorrow , i might even make some bread too . Sadly all my little toms are gone so foccacia with cherry tomato is off the menu until July

 

Ooo that sounds good! I have an excellent no-knead focaccia recipe I use - do you just push half toms into the top before baking?

 

The very mild, and mostly dry, conditions here have meant I've been able to do more than normal, although I'm not sure I like that! Much prefer colder, frostier weather. Will carry on with some more concreting of a post or two which have been a bit wobbly, just to keep the low fence going until the hedge grows well enough, and then I'll probably take it down.
Yesterday I painted part of the inside of the shed - I'm using up lots of paint which I won't need elsewhere. Rinsed more pea gravel for top dressing the pots I've planted up, and re potted a few cuttings I'm growing. Filled up bird feeders.
I tidied all the front path, scraping out all the joints in the slabs, and removing the moss etc, but mainly dealing with the mess of the neighbour's overgrown sh*t hole. Today I'll probably cut back her shrubs which eventually block my [and others] access completely. Drives me nuts. If you buy a house with a garden, and don't want to [ or can't ] keep it under control - employ someone to do it or pave it over.
The outside boundary will get a quick hoe as well, because weeds have never stopped this autumn. Don't usually need to do that so late in the year. The little bed at the far end of the front garden, beyond the fence, will get finished, and I'll possibly plant a shrub there, and just cover it for winter. I've got some perennials for the inside area, so might get that done too, and a few more bits of hedging I've grown on could be put in too.

 

@CarolineL Hello we use whole cherry toms pushed into the top. Great as a tray bake and tastes just as good if you freeze some for a later date too.

 

@fairygirl . You make a number of good points , i am preparing for winter but my dahlias and other plants are just existing , not flowering but stuck. Plus the grass is growing too well . We really do need a cold snap , there are a lot of people struggling with viruses , bad colds etc and this mild damp is doing us and our gardens no good at all.

 

@RobertBowen, I agree wholeheartedly. I went out yesterday determined to sort out my dahlias, but first I read up on the internet about lifting them, and it said that it's better for them to be hit by frost first, so I came back in having done not very much.

 

I lifted a dahlia a few days ago. It wasn't going to produce anything else. It isn't vital to have frosts hitting them before lifting and storing. We've had a handful of frosts, although nothing of any measure [ie nothing below zero] but other than a bit of damage to foliage, it didn't affect flowers, which is pretty normal.
I also took out a couple of seed grown ones, which I'm drying off to keep, although it's not the end of the world if they don't survive as I have some new seed.
It's quite tricky to store them successfully here as it's often too damp in the shed, and the gr'house isn't reliably warm/dry enough. The easiest way for me is to have them in the house.

 

I actually mowed part of the lawn today, but only to get the leaves up. It will be the last cut of the year.

Note to myself - I must buy another compost bin. This larger garden is producing far more green waste than I anticipated.