Its middle of the month!! What have you been doing in the last 2 weeks?

Yeah, winter is here. We had some nice weather though.
Me just sown some more broad beans and spread some manure.
Oh and bought a lovely rose bush and planted it, and got hold of a couple of blueberry bushes too yummie!

 

My garden thermometer has only got down to 0.5C overnight so far, which is just as well as its still a very busy time preparing for winter.


Yesterday I bought 10 more 30 litre plastic containers with handles - £3.99 each. Similar to the above. I have decided to get rid of all my terracotta pots. Which is sad, and they were quite expensive too. But I grow a lot of stuff that is not reliably hardy, and have to move them into a shed or greenhouse for the winter. Some of the large terracotta pots are so heavy that I can hardly lift them on their own - let alone full. Even the 30 litre pots are heavy enough. 30 litres of water weighs 66 lbs, and soil is about twice as heavy. But the handles are a great help. So I have been repotting. I am accumulation a lot of large plastic pots - including 50 litre ones. There is an old adage 'the bigger the pot the bigger the plant' - well it should be an old adage. :D


I also bought some fleece bags like these, which come in three sizes. So I will try some winter protection in situ for a Brugmansia and an Echium.



At the same nursery I also saw bigger pop up ones like this - but they are much more expensive at around £18. And for those who are really serious about winter protection you can now buy an antifreeze spray that gives your plant extra protection. http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2008/1105-antifreeze_for_your_plants.htm

And I am still taking a bit of seed and some cuttings.

 

Those 30 litres containers for £3.99 wow great deal!
Where did you get them from??????

 

I got them when I visited here http://www.hightrees.co.uk/ which is about 30 minutes away. They had several larger sizes as well. I think the reason why they have such a good selection of large pots is that they specialise in selling trees and shrubs as well as a wide range of plants.

You can buy the same things online from here. http://www.thegardensuperstore.co.uk/acatalog/Extra_Large_Plant_Pots.html

 

Great! Just what I wanted for my fig tree!

 

Is it? I've not seen it yet. The back garden still has flowers in it that were supposed to have finished a while ago, although granted it is slowing down now.

 

Been staring out at torrential rain and wind for the last few days. As we're on clay here, the lawn has now turned into a swamp and traipsing up to the chicken run at the end of the garden is only possible by using the stepping stones.

However this morning I got out and planted the tulip bulbs. I've also been half heartedly cutting back the perennial borders, but only those I can reach from the path. The rest will have to wait until until the garden dries out.

Oh yes, STILL collecting leaves up. Was hoping the weekend 'hurricane' would get rid of the ones still clinging on to the trees, but it hasn't.

 

True, my castor oil plant is still bright red. Had frost on the car though last week at 6 am! Only 2 months though and can sow the chilli seeds:luv:

 

Update: Still no sign of frosts here. Lots of rain though. Too soggy to do much.

 

Here in Mancheter had frost only once up to now

 

No frost here yet according to my thermometer. I am slowly removing summer flowering plants and replacing them with biennials to flower early next year. But its hard to do. Some plants, including a number of Salvias, are still flowering well. Even my Red Hot Poker has new flower buds appearing.

 

Oh yeah my red hot poker too. Was it a 'too warm' autumn??? (i guess so)