What are we doing in the garden 2024

Mow them up and bin them. Far quicker and less effort. My aching joints thank me and my bank account can afford an £8.00 bag of compost!

 

I have been mowing grass and leaves too, though on the Allotments not in the garden. The garden will have to wait till tomorrow or Saturday. I had been getting a bit desperate to get the paths cut at the plots as it's been so mild the grass was long and thick. Hopefully it will not grow so much now, as our machine shed officially closes for winter after today. The compost bins are full now, but hope the damp grass and leaves will heat up and start to rot quickly .

 

Following my hospital visit last week, I felt well enough to take a wander around the garden, and, with breaks, managed to take down a flowering cherry tree which I reckon self seeded some time ago. Only about 15ft high, and the trunk about 3 inches in diameter. I can use the trunk and several of the branches to create a wigwam, for some of the raspberry canes I ordered today.

We've now bought some Skimmia Reevesiana (with a nod to the Chancellor) to partially replace the Japanese anemones that we are trying to eradicate. Fingers crossed!!

 

Removed a dead viburnum and a dead grevillea, the roots came out relatively easily. The viburnum came out like a tooth with rotten roots. The viburnum died at the end of this spring and the grevillea over the summer.

 

I took over a part of the allotments that was unused about 10 yrs ago and it had always been a dumping ground for as long as I have lived here for the neighbours, access is not good so at that time I just moved all the junk further up and sorted out the part I wanted for growing.

Anyway I've decided its a bit of wasted space, although it always provided a good crop of blackberries, I've started on trying to at least make something useful of the area, but a lot of stuff to shift, it looks really rough I know, but I'm going to do something with it, but probably not veg.

 

Nothing today in the garden and tomorrow going to defrost the freezer downstairs.

 

Is it actually yours @pete ? It would be galling if you tidied it up and then it was taken back

 

Which has been my thinking for 10 yrs
Its all a bit odd really as I'm supposed to be renting it but nobody asks me for rent anymore.

 

We didn't get charged for garden material until a few years ago @shiney . I'm quite surprised you don't get charged. Mind you, since you make good use of all your garden 'produce' [as it definitely isn't waste!] you wouldn't have much to put in them anyway. I'm the same - it all gets composted. The only time I've paid for a bin is in the last year or two as I was removing a hedge, and I could only re use some of it.
I hope they aren't just waiting for you to clear it up @pete, and then.....
Didn't do much yesterday as I had a double walk, but collected more leaves after the morning one. We have hundreds of very handy trees of all sorts, but the footpath round the corner has hedging between it and the road, and the boundary hedge of the NT garden is on the other side of that. A lot of beech and oak, and the wind direction means that all of that great resource is very useful for me as I don't have suitable trees in this garden. I planted out a couple more bits and pieces after lunch, then did the 2nd walk. Wasn't much time after that for anything.
I like to be back inside about an hour before it's dark, so that the birds get time for feeding too.
Today, I'll just see if any deadheading or planting out needs done after my walk, maybe a pot or two painted inside, as it's too damp for outside, and then it'll possibly be.... housework...

 

That's really interesting @shiney - and imagine that - a council realising they've cocked up!
The 'village visiting' lorry is a really good idea too.

There's no excuse for folk just dumping stuff though. It's still fly tipping, even if it's green material that would break down over time. We had a hideous spate of that round during the lockdowns, because people couldn't use the local tip, although with household stuff rather than garden, because we had a year round, weekly collection for the latter.
The problem is, they haven't gone back to the usual regime there, where you just turned up and queued. You still have to book a time slot, and I'm still seeing rubbish dumped in some places in the general area. I'm sure that's the reason. I just don't understand some people's attitude. Vile and thoughtless.

 

@shiney That sounds a good system. Those of us in rural areas here either have to deal with our own garden waste or buy garden-specific council bags ,£1each , to dispose of green waste. Very impractical . I compost most of what the garden generates but most rural residents in the county will have a 20-30 mile round trip to the tip to clear garden waste as there is no rural garden waste disposal service which only applies to Hereford and our market towns. Under the last Govt there were plans to standardise waste collection across England and Wales - each council has its own system or lack of it. Whether the new Govt will change that notion remains to be seen.

 

We have just three green waste collections left for this year. Our green bin is full and I have 12 more bags of the thicker stuff and a yucca stalk waiting to go in. The oaks around us are just starting to drop their leaves so I am raking them up and dumping them on the compost (now full) and now piling them behind shrubs. There's so much of it. At the bottom of the garden it will be golf course oak leaves so sometimes (I'm in hushed voice now) I return them by climbing over the fence with bag fulls. It all depends which way the wind blows as to whether we get all their leaves.

Next year I will pay for 2 green bins - about £60 each at the moment. For 20 collections.

But it is continual leaf collecting at the moment.