WHAT ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY - 2022

Deadheaded all the Dahlias and Zinnias as I haven't done them at all this week. I had to stake a couple of the bigger Dahlias as they are top heavy with blooms.I thought that one stem had broken off as it was laying across the path so I went to cut it off and it came away neatly with tubers and roots attached....so another new plant to find a home for.
Hope to get out again after lunch before our expected rain comes about 3pm ( ish).

 

Started planting a border with tulips, wallflowers and foxgloves, haven't finished it, started raining.

 

Well the rain did arrive but I was determined to get a few more things done so donned wellies and waterproofs and knuckled down to finish planting out the new Wallflowers that are replacements for old ones that had become woody .

 

T'other Half just said he is amazed what people have to do in the rain.

 

... I know madness maybe!!

I certainly didn't have to do anything really, but it wasn't at it's worse when I went out, and rain doesn't deter me at all.......now wind is a totally different kettle of fish.

Housework is all done as is the laundry so rather than sitting..... .

 

On this last day of September (!) I was out on the balcony planting some bulbs & Cyclamens as well as rearranging the balcony - once again! This time I'm making one of the biggest changes I've made on the balcony in the 21 years I've been gardening on it!

I've decided that the 3 long white plastic troughs on the balcony floor up against the balcony railings have to go!

I got them from the factory where they were made shortly after I started working there! They have served me extremely well I must say & they have never been without plants in them all these 21 years! They have become too much hard work now. I have changed the plants around twice a year most years since I've had them. It's a backbreaking operation every May & October taking out the winter/spring bedding bulbs & putting in the summer bedding & then having to repeat the operation again in October with the winter/spring bedding & bulbs!

The Daffodil bulbs & Hyacinths that I bought yesterday I've now planted in pots on the balcony, I've overplanted them with a Cyclamen in each pot.


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Lovely blooms Balc.

 

Cut back climbers on garage wall and a bit of a prune around the front. Crack on with cleaning greenhouse glass inside and out, remove finished plants and pots.

 

A proper tidy up day. The toms finally came out, as well as the "cutting garden", also known as "oh there are some Gladiolus bulbs in this box, I wonder if they are still alive" (yes, and all of them the most disappointing wishy washy purple-ish colour possible ) and the overwinterers went on top of the newly cleared raised bed. Much tidier than pots scattered about, and the sides should hopefully limit the number of pots flying about in the winter gales.

Hopeless plants went into the bin and pots with somewhat promising looking compost were emptied into buckets to be used for less demanding plants next year, or any plants when I again run out of proper compost.

Then I did a big sweep around and made a discovery. Deep, deep down in the bowels of the Earth... ok, I'll start again. You know those places where two walls or fences meet? After some vigorous sweeping, under the knee high 6- year old piles of "leaf mould" (I'm being generous with the term), assorted bits of plain rubbish, a football, and three gloves was A Corner!

So now I'm a Lady Who Has Corners in her back garden My daughter hastened to say that it doesn't really qualify me for "edgy", but at least I'm now past the stage where people call my garden (with a strangely thin voice) "so wildlife friendly".

Wildlife friendly obviously remains, but I must admit that a good tidy up does make the space look different. Corners and all... nearly posh!

 

After yesterday's rain I had to empty the saucers under the pots on the middle bar of balcony railing as well as the new pots I'd put out only a couple of days before with the Pansies & Daffodil bulbs as well as the pot of Hyacinths. It's been many months since I last did that! Ah, & sweeping up the rubbish left by the wind & rain of yesterday all over my nicely cleaned balcony of the day before!
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I also cut back a branch of Pelargonium graeveolens, or so I thought at the moment of closing the secateur's blades over it, but turned out to be 2 branches! So, as I couldn't stick one of the branches back on again, I chopped them up to use as cuttings!

 

Yesterday finished off the planting in a border and started on another one, but haven't done anything today.

 

So much for our predicted rain, it's been a stunning Autumn day here, so I was able to carry on from yesterday .

Gradually removing all the perennial flowers from the pots, planters and baskets and those that are tender have been potted up for overwintering and the hardy ones have been re- homed into the borders.

Dug up and potted up, for overwintering, the newer ,smaller Pelargoniums 21 so far .The bigger ones are still blooming well and will be left for another week or two.

Cut back 3 of the Cupids Darts and drastically reduced their size too.

Also cut back some of the larger and established Wallflowers.

Planted out a couple of Hellibores, I noticed today that one that is in the border has quite well developed buds on it already!

Still walking around in circles trying to decide where to plant out into the borders 13 new Dahlias that were part of the new lot that I grew from seed earlier this year. Also trying to find a home for 4 Heucheras that I've grown from cuttings.

Lots of pondering needs doing.

 

Not a lot but did cut back the trough of trailing Geraniums/Pelargoniums which were nearly a meter long and now they are ... not!!! Pulled up a couple and put a few new ones in. Cut a long (50cm) piece of Pothos variegated (Devils Ivy) off the one in the bathroom and planted three pieces out on a trough under the bedroom window ... will just keep there. T'other Half threaded half a dozen errant new feelers of the Hibbertia scandens through the new eaves trellis on The Baffa.
My scorched Adenium obesum nursery looks sad ... but I live in hope.

 

Not much today it has been fine for once , thought about mowing the lawn but I'll do it tomorrow in stead , the weather been rotten most of the week. I have been doing some Salvia / penstemon garnet cutting this evening.

I got covid again its very mild.