What are we doing in the garden 2024

I cannot stand the noise of leaf blowers and how long they go on for, can be a few hours every weekend for the whole of autumn. My oak leaves get raked up twice a year, once when half have come down and then when the bulk of the rest have come down. Raking is generally done when the leaves are wet and claggy and they go straight into dumpy bags.

 

@On the Levels What a treat , wine made by you with your own grapes, such a shame that your harvest is reduced but hopefully this will be a vintage year for you .What sort of wine does it usually make , dry? I used to make pea pod wine which made a lovely fresh dry wine and it was a triple whammy - eat the peas , turn the steeped pods into wine and the spent pod mash went into compost , so no waste !

 

Continued to work in the neglected area, found the usual broken glass, a possible frisbee and a number of carpet tiles. Work ceased when I tried to push the end of a pruned branch through the back of my hand.

 

@Robert Bowen we make many wines through the year starting with primrose. Used to do dandelion but it failed too many years so gave up. Then elderflower, if glut gooseberries, blackcurrants, elderberry (none for the last 2 years as weather hasn't allowed them to develop probably), then the white grapes which usually we can get up to 20 bottles of a semi dry wine. We also have black eating grapes and again if a glut after bottling, jamming, freezing we make wine. We have also , again when in glut, made apple, pear and quince wines. We give many away to family and friends but only when we have tried a sample to make sure it is OK!

 

"an eiderdown of leafage"! That is the most fantastic description, @Robert Bowen!

 

Oops!

 

Been working in a dark corner of our new garden. I have noticed that in many places the "hedge" is two trees thick, and this corner was no different. A dead or dying tree, between the boundary fence and the visible greenery.
I investigated the corner, and found a (dead) fallen tree between the dead tree and the fence. Said tree, from the property behind me, has come down straddling the fence between myself and neighbouring gardening. I spoke to my neighbour, who was not aware of the fallen tree. Mind you, it's taken me almost 10 months to notice it.
Fallen tree, which is definitely dead, unfortunately has several nests in it, two of which are still occupied, by blackbird chicks and robin chicks. So, we can't even move the debris.
And guess who owns the fence that is the one most damaged!! What's more, it happened before we moved in, and neither we nor the surveyor noticed it.

Edited to add:
I can't cut down MY dead tree, because it is also holding up this fallen tree - with active nests.

 

Yes, I was reluctant to get one because of the noise, but considering I have to put up with everyone else's strimming, power washing (that seems to be a hobby among the young men in my street, they can spend hours at a time power washing one car) and dog barking, I decided I'm entitled to make a bit of my own racket.

 

All tomatoes now picked and the pots cleared.
Bulbs planted into those pots.
Squirrel-proofed the bulb pots.

 

Not just the young men; I have two neighbours one my age one younger who every couple of weeks use the electric mower, then the strimmer, then the electric blower to clear the path and finally the pressure washer comes out to do the car, path, drive or occasionally the garage wall. This takes most of the day. I wouldn't mind if they had lawns bigger than a handkerchief.
Then there is the electric saw and the electric angle grinder.
I will own up to having a strimmer and a very noisy old petrol mower, but then my garden is larger than their two plots together, also the mower comes out every 4 to 6 weeks.
I also don't have a rotavator, chainsaw, angle grinder or electric saw. I find hand tools, although slower, do as a good job and are safer and quieter. More seriously all the electric and petrol appliances have to be maintained, take up a lot of space and I cannot justify having them unless I'm using them at least weekly and preferably daily.

 

I only use my leaf blower/vac for short periods and usually when my immediate neighbour is out. If the neighbour at the back with the loud voice is in his garden, I carry on regardless .

 

I went to Peter Beales Classic Roses yesterday and I bought a yellow Leverkusen climbing rose, 6 hardy geraniums, Toprose and gardening gloves. Their gardens were looking very neat as there were having a craft fair today so had worked hard on the garden. We didn't go as it was our village fête.

We had decided to dig up the ancient honeysuckle that always gets ill and some of the geranium phaeums that seed themselves like mad and re-do that bit against the fence. I'll plant new rose and the Prince Charles clematis, that OH gave me, there.

5 of the geraniums were for planting in the area where the huge ceanothus tree that died had been. I did that yesterday afternoon. It gets some afternoon shade when the sun goes behind the house. I dug in a lot of compost as the soil is quite sandy. We didn't want anything tall again as it blocked light and the view from the dining room window.

OH cut down the tatty honeysuckle yesterday and dug it out today. The other geranium is for planting in front of the rose and clematis. I'll do the planting of those tomorrow, when I've dug a load of compost in.

 

@On the Levels - All those sound great and some i have not heard of before. Its many a year since i made wine but some of my favourites were black overripe banana , mixed dried fruit , tea bag and the pick of the lot , damson and cracked wheat . Thank you for that , you have brought some good memories out of the dim and distant past.

 

Haha. I have a neighbour who whistles every single second he is outside. Maybe he whistles indoors too. I'm just jolly glad I don't live with him. No identifiable tune of course. He also has a dog with a completely manic bark.

@NigelJ , there is an advert that keeps playing on one of my streaming services which is for a Karcher power washer attachment, and it features a woman power washing a wooden fence. Do people really do that? If not, this advert is surely going to make them feel they should be doing so ...

 

That makes my annoyance much more bearable @Escarpment!