What are we doing in the garden 2024

@CostasK i havent tried that but its an interesting idea and if you arent going to plant where you have put the leaves they will go into the soil in time and add goodness. But if you can find room to make your own compost thats even better. If you are going to put the fallen leaves direct into the beds , try mowing them first , they will break down quicker and they will be easier to spread , from the mowing collection box.

 

Any leaves which fall onto the beds are left in situ here. All the ones on the grass are collected and chopped up by the mower and then go straight into the compost.

I do have a tidy up of some of the leaves on the beds in the new year so we can better see the cyclamen and snowdrops. Those leaves go onto the compost, they’ve usually started to break down anyway.

 

Cleared the paths from the leaves. It does become dangerous if left and it rains. So onto the compost heaps.
Then weeded the bulb bed. How does the wild strawberry get around so much? We never planted it but it is all over the garden. The bugle has also decided this bed is a great place to take over but it can do that elsewhere.

 

Dug up another coffin size plot of turf and weeds. Some of the weed roots would make carrot show farmers proud, they just go down and down until one can nearly detect a koala wriggling its ears.

A small mammal made a wild dash across the patio in the morning, just by my feet. A rat would be the likely option in this rather urban setting, but I think it was smaller than a rat and I didn't detect any prominent tail. We'll see

JParkers sent a replacement Polystichum fern and the original one I thought is past any hope actually looks like it might survive

 

I took a trugfull of wild primrose seedlings from my garden (I've got far too many) down to the Community Orchard nearby and planted them all. We're trying to encourage more wildflowers for pollinators so I hope they survive.
After that, I tried to dig up an ailing clump of Iris sibirica which doesn't flower. A tough job best suited to a mattock. I got most of it out but guess it might reappear next year. Emptied out a bag of leaf mould as a mulch in the same spot then dug out a thyme which had long outgrown it's welcome.
Had a late lunch, then fell asleep in my chair!

 

I wouldn't leave large amounts of leaves on a bed/border that had planting which would succumb to rotting at the crown @BrennaBee . A thick layer of wet leaves will damage things like peonies, for example, so if you have perennials or similar which would struggle to get through a solid layer of foliage, it's better to remove them. Some smaller bulbs with finer foliage can also struggle if the layer is thick and solid. It also depends on the general climate you have as to how quickly they'd break down anyway, and a drier site will cause less damage to plants than a wet one. A bed/border full of woody shrubs would be fine.
If you gather them and create a cage for them, or even just in black bin bags with plenty of holes, they'll break down and can be used for all sorts of things. You can use a standard mower to chop them up a bit which will speed up the process.
I never add them to a compost bin - they don't break down in the same way as general material in a compost bin, so it's better to have them separate.

Got some more bulbs planted yesterday and some hedging cuttings put in before the rain came on properly. Today is to be murky rather than wet, although it's smirry just now, so I might get a bit more tidying/painting done if I have time, before I need to go out in the afternoon.

 

Worked in the new polytunnel this morning as rain very heavy outside. Not happy to find cat mess in one of the beds. We have had a tunnel for some decades and never had a cat go inside. The new tunnel has like a stable door which we have left the top part open. The cat (we can see the paw prints outside) has climbed over and inside. Why? Sleeping there? Now we have closed the top door. The paths we cleared of leaves yesterday....yes there are full of leaves again today.

 

Probably just nosey @On the Levels. My indoor cat Midnight will investigate any open door that is usually closed; room, cupboard or washing machine. His brother Truffles is completely uninterested.

 

Didn't have time to do anything yesterday, but it rained on and off all afternoon anyway, so it would have only been a few bits and pieces. Will hopefully get those done today.
The rain is light, and it's to be mainly overcast/smirry so it's fine for planting out anything that needs it. I've got a few things in pots that could go out.

 

There's a bare root standard rose due to be delivered from David Austin today.
Think tomorrow might be a better day to plant it though

 

I got a surprise when inspecting my foxglove seedlings this morning. Some of them have got greenfly on them, never seen that before. Also lots of tiny white flies flitting about in a cloud whenever disturbed. Might have to forgo sowing foxgloves seeds this early again, a little later may be better. It’s very mild outside again today, yesterday it was 18 and today 14. degrees.

 

Finished cleaning the outside glass on the conservatory and then tackled the box gutter and side ones. So many leaves and as always so difficult to get them all out.

 

When is best to plant the seeds? I've got some Foxgloves and Lupins to start off for my woodland, but not sure when is best to plant. The woodland isn't ready for them yet, so was going to start them off in pots indoors, probably in the new year, hoping they'll be big enough to plant out in the Spring.


I did a bit more grass clearing in the edge of the woodland yesterday, but haven't done anything in the garden today. I did pot some Creeping Jenny that I've been rooting in cups of water.

 

Foxgloves seed in June and are ready to be planted out in August latest.

 

Been weeding the rhubarb border, it had a lot of grass in it and at the back there's a few brambles that need removing but have to wait for the bin to be emptied. What I've pulled up has gone into pile in a corner that's out of the way for the hedgehogs to over winter.