What are we doing in the garden 2024

Well since dark there have been two large bangs from outside. One loud enough to get a neighbour to look out of their back door.
One large spruce branch is down and bounced off the edge of the flat roof and another smaller branch is on the flat roof. I'll have a better look tomorrow. Also had one small branch bounce off the front door.

 

Hopefully nobody has had any major issues with Darragh , these storms are getting a little too regular of late lets hope for quieter things to come.

 

Somehow the leaves have a habit to twist all into the corners where the water goes down in one or the other way. I spent an hour trying to catch them with the or other twist in between. Otherwise I would have done that in 5 minutes

 

Just a quick dash to feed the chickens, collect eggs and check that we've still got a polytunnel, then back in to a lovely, warm, dry house and browsing seed and plant catalogues!

 

As it's bin collection day on Tuesday, I'll be removing all the leaves and twigs that have collected in various corners around the garden and cutting some of my storm battered grasses down to the ground. The arch in my lower garden is tilting precariously so I'll have a look at that too .

 

Nothing today it's still very windy here

 

Right had a better look round and apart from the two branches mentioned above and a lot of smaller twigs down; the major point of note is the number of plants with scorched leaves, Solanum laxum appears to have been completely defoliated, the Daphne bohula is scorched quite badly as are a number of other plants.
Big branch has been cut up, just need to help the smaller branch down from the flat roof.

 

Had a dash outside to retrieve some plastic domes which had been blown off their pots. Also our little yew tree has been uprooted so we quickly dig a big hole and replanted it. OH put a large open plant support around it to help support it from the westerly winds which seem to be hitting the garden with great gusto. It’s doing a cracking job for now. Rain has returned and great gusty winds prevail. Horrible, dark too.

 

Just had a quick half hour outside. Checked the whole garden - found lots of dead bramble blown out of the hedge and in one place a large tangle of honeysuckle and bramble had come down.

Noticed that the neigbour had lost several panes from their greenhouse.

Gathered up some of the brash and bramble and topped up the green bin which should be collected tomorrow.

It was not at all pleasant outside - perfectly dry but the wind is still strong and cold and made my nose run like a tap. I was glad to get inside again.

 

It’s been very windy and cold, but dry! Cleared a couple of barrow loads of twigs and small branches from the grass. Topped up the bird feeders. Watered the pots - they’d somehow got very dry, not surprising that the big top heavy ones had blown over. Sprayed some plants to wash salt off. Moved a newly planted little pot into the greenhouse as the viola and cyclamen had been scorched. Washed salt off the kitchen window and one end of the conservatory so that I can see out- wonder how bad it’ll be in the morning

 

This weekend I wanted to finish removing half of my lawn. Despite being in the North East and therefore having been spared of the actual storm, the weather was horrendous yesterday. Today, the soil was wet and there were intermittent showers, but that was more bareable. I don't like being cold and wet but there is something I hate more: waiting So I spent hours removing old lawn and saturated soil, and driving to the tip (4 trips).

I also moved a rose and a clematis. I realise it's not the absolute best time for that but I had to do it now because of the changes to the landscaping. Both had been planted only about a year ago anyway. I was able to tease out the roots of the rose with minimal breakage. I tried to do a good job with the clematis as well, but to be honest I am slightly underwhelmed by that one so.. What will be will be!

 

Tidied up branches and picked up a load of smaller bits. Now have half a dozen usable logs for somebody or other and a mass of shredding to do.

 

A slate roof tile made a spectacular landing on the "seating area". We inspected the loft and didn't see any new gaps of light, and inspecting the roof from the garden displayed an undisturbed, neat roof of slates.

The neighbourghs' roofs (rooves?) also look intact so the origin of the slate remains a mystery.

The greenhouse is still standing and the gaps of missing glass fixed with plastic film and some Jesus tape are still there. The plantlets are just fine.

Ooo please come soon January when it's admissible to sow the first seeds

 

Done a bit today . Emptied the last of the pots and chucked it on the shredding pile . Planted my first lot of bulbs only about 70 tulips in some pots , and the two big pots next to the front door got some cornus shrubs and some hellebores I got in the spring sale (wish I had bought some more now ) still need to add bulbs to the pots . And just a general sweep around on the paths until I got bored of that and got the blower out.

Surprisingly I haven't succumb to the bulb sales from varies vendors , everything still seems a bit pricey but more importantly nothing really took my fancy what's in stock. I am still fairly short of bulbs for all my nice pots so may pick some up from the supermarket / others if they have them .

 

I cut back the dead foliage on a couple of sibirica/ensata irises. Nothing else needs doing.
Fortunately, on Saturday afternoon, I'd done the longer piece of hose attached to the tap on the waterbutt. I then pushed it through my deadhedge and onto the ground around the conifers/ pine trees, and left the tap open. Otherwise, it would be bursting out the top or backing up. It had been so dry in November that I'd forgotten about it.