What are we doing in the garden 2024

Even after all these years i still find it amazing that i can spend all day busily doing stuff in the garden and it doesnt look any different at the end to how it did when i started. The biggest job was to remove a jungle of orange crocosmia that had launched a full scale invasion from my neighbours border into my garden. I have kept looking at the messy floppy foliage evry time i have finished in the garden in recent weeks . Two gloved hands yielded a mounded wheelbarrow full of the orange marauders and a lot of the bulbs came up too. The compost heap is now much richer and the shrubs that had been swamped can breathe once more.

 

@Robert Bowen I have had crocosmia corms/bulbs come through my compost heap.

 

Hi @Robert Bowen - unfortunately, all of your comments re grass are the status here! Wet, freezing, saturated - all apply from this time of year until spring. The grass rarely does much growing once we're in October, so it's very rare for me to need to cut it until April/May, and that also depends on how warm April is. We often still have snow/ice/frost through that month. Even in the last couple of years when we've had very mild winters, there's been very little extra growth through this time of year. We often have to cut grass when it's wet - that's just how it is. I don't scalp mine the way some folk do, but that's because they know there's going to be some rain, so it's easier for them to do that. I prefer mine to be at a decent length, and be mainly grass though, rather than moss!
As @NigelJ says - those crocosmias, which will be the invasive montbretia rather than a cultivated form, will keep trying. I had an extension built over one patch, and they still kept creeping through at the sides a year on! Very difficult to get rid of completely. Like you, I can spend a long time out there and it looks like I've done nothing, which can be frustrating. This year has been like that because it's been renovating of things rather than doing new stuff. Pleased with my rebuilt shed though.
I got quite a bit done yesterday as the rain was just spitting for most of the afternoon, rather than properly raining. Front bed is all cleared and ready for whatever shrubs I lift and plant there. The Actea I lifted will go in there though, once I've got it going well again. Managed to get the very tenacious stand of ferns out from the new L. B's Gold hedge I did. Should have done it when I put the cuttings in a couple of years ago, but didn't, so it was well wedged up against the fence and the front path.
I've put more small plants in that gap, and another one further along, and have a couple more to do, so they might get done today. Nicely watered with the overnight rain. Got the grass cut, so that's also had a nice watering. I have some more clearing of the front bed beyond the fence, to get shot of the bio-kovo geranium, so that might be for today too.

 

@NigelJ i half expected that , i dont dislike crocosmia but theywere weeds where they were , any survivors ( in the border or in the heap) will be consigned to the grass verge outside to share space with the alchemilla mollis , japanese anemone and helianthus maximiliani

 

@fairygirl Good morning , it sounds like your part of west central Scotland is more like the permafrost of northern Canada. Gardening in your part of the world sounds like really hard work and must be very frustrating on those occasions where your hard work proves fruitless .Thanks to you and @NigelJ for your concerns about the crocosmias - i have 4 compost bays for the different stages of decomp so i can watch for any crocosmia counter attack before anything reaches bay 4 by which times it ought to be good mulch. Best wishes , R.

 

Canada is like a bigger version of Scotland @Robert Bowen, in every way. I have relations on the west side. It's a beautiful country. If I didn't live here, that's probably where I'd want to live.
I'm used to our gardening conditions though, as it's all I've ever known

I have to say - I'd never put montbretia in my compost bin. I stil lhave it in various sites and pull it when I see it. I sometimes cut the foliage off it and put that in, but not the corms. Too easy for them to grow again!

 

@fairygirl - well its all on top of bay 1 , im going to take your advice and spend a little time this morning ( between the showers) sifting out these pernicious corms from the sheaves of foliage. Btw i have relatives on the edge of Ottawa , i was captivated when visiting there in autumn a few years back. I have never seen autumn colour on such a huge scale. But , i will stick to Herefordshire clay !

 

My relatives are all Vancouver and surrounding areas. My aunt moved there after marrying a chap from the Canandian Air Force after the war. I was lucky enough to go there the year before my oledr daughter was born

I don't want to worry you terribly about the corms etc, but they don't need much help to come back to life. My conditions might suit them better, but if you have the time, and inclination, to remove them, it might be a good idea.

 

@fairygirl well thats what happened with my relatives too ! Marry a Canadian airman and emigrate to Canada and raise a family there!

 

Small world - in some ways eh @Robert Bowen?

Got some jobs done yesterday as it was mainly dry. Potted on some forsythia cuttings - typical that I really only need one and all four have taken well. The extras can go into the hedging somewhere. Decided to do the rest of the concrete at the front gate, rather than doing it today. Just managed to nip out and get it covered in the evening before more rain came on, so that was lucky. It's looking ok today.
I had to go to B&Q for more gravel for that job, so I picked up a few bulbs while I was there. Potted up some of the crocus, and the couple that there wasn't room for, went in one of the beds. 3 packs, so roughly a pack per pot, but the others will have to wait as I still have my lettuce in them. They'll be a nice little burst of colour on the back steps. Tied in the white sweet peas, which are doing well now, as they just get battered by the winds. Staked/tied in the ones which are growing through planting in one of the beds, as they were in danger of being broken.
Not much will get done today as I have to go out in the afternoon, but probably some deadheading, and checking if anything else needs potting on. I've got a couple of V. bons which are growing in a container that also needs some emptying, so I might sort that.

 

Not a lot going on in my garden due to a family visit.
Mt daughter in law was itching to get her hands on my ginormous sage bush recently bought so under my supervision, she removed some dead wood and trimmed it back a little. She also watered the tomatoes for me, under supervision. Her idea of watering was a teaspoonful of water per plant so I asked her to give them a good soak. I must go and remove any side shoots and tie in the tops of any needing it.

 

While it's bright in these pictures, it's been a showery day, so I've not done anything outside. In the workshop, I've been painting a large capping stone to match an existing 160 year old wall. I've also been up-potting some more Thyme.

Other than that, during a dry period, I took a walk around the garden and did some photography of the surviving Summer colours as we head into Autumn.

The kitchen patio


Sun room patio


Woodland and railway border.

 

Every time I see these lovely gardens I feel just a little touch of envy as I visual myself sitting and relaxing there - then I think of the up keep- and come back to reality knowing that my 15 x 15ft garden is plenty for me to look after.

The weather today is looking good - No winds, the sky is blue after the hail and thunder we had last night. I was out in the back at 6am this morning taking off the fleece from the outside toms and also managed to pick a bowl of ripe ones at the same time. As I felt the heat from the sun warming my back I was thinking that just may be? - the Met Office is right that we will be getting an Indian Summer.

 

Got to work to your needs and abilities @Grandma Sue
I know that someday, if I stay here, it'll become too much, and I'll just get someone in to clear the whole lot and I'll just have some bits and pieces. I don't want to pay someone to maintain it either. I'll just get worried about it not being done the way I want!
Didn't do much yesterday as I wasn't around all day, but I took out the little V. bons from the pot they were in and potted them separately. Tucked up against the house wall now until next year, so hopefully they'll survive. I picked some more toms too, and they're ripening up properly in the kitchen. I needed to do some little thumb turns for the gr'house doors, because I'd had to do some renovation to that earlier in the year as well, so I did that. I'd done the top ones last week. I'm sure I did a couple of other things, but I've already forgotten...

I might get on today with clearing the bed in the front garden, and planting more of the cuttings I did for the hedging. I've got a couple of tree seedlings I've grown on, but I might stick the hawthorn into the hedge as I already have a present of one at the back, courtesy of the birds. The other one is a birch, also a present, but I'm not sure I really have a site for it. Some other cuttings to check, and pot on if needed.

 

Yesterday was a bit of a non day for me. The excitement of having visiting family caught up with me. I walked the dog, took a repeat prescription to the surgery and drove into town to do a quick shop before dropping into my comfy chair and going to sleep for a couple of hours. I hope my batteries are now recharged