WHAT ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY - 2022

Getting all the terrace plants under the roof, ready for winter. It was heartbreaking having to chop the Pandorea and Stephanotis back to their respective (portable) trellisses, but they're nice and cosy now against the house wall. The Gelsemium is flowering at last and the red Passion flower is going great guns. They've all flowered better since temperatures dropped to the mid-20°Cs.
The citrus trees will stay out until I'm sure that the woolly scale is vanquished. The last thing I want rampaging through the winter 'conservatory'....

 

All the tender Fuchsias and Pelagoniums ( found 3 more hiding in the borders that were missed) are now snuggled up in the big walled cold frame . Tonight is the 1st night it has been closed up fully as the temps are dropping to 2C.

Citrus and Avocado have been moved indoors to over winter in the front lobby.

Potted Dahlias have been trimmed slightly as they had become soggy with all the rain and brought undercover on one of the patios , once they get frosted they will be cut right back and placed ( in their pots )in the greenhouse under the staging.

 

I put up another shelf up in the shed, I used a spirit level this time, also filled a Black rubbish bag full of rubbish.
I can now see a small part of the floor.

 

Had a productive week off, mainly consisting on walking, drinking wine at lunchtime and tidying up the garden.

The 101 Allium free bulbs for every reader that GW forced upon me arrived, so I now have a (hopefully) nice Allium lasagne pot for the spring. There are some big ones (Stipidatum Mount Everest and the usual big purple one), many drumsticks (Sphaerocephalon) that I quite like and earlier flowering small white ones to start the thing off. Possibly I'll add some Crocuses if I walk past any on ridiculous discount. There were also 40 yellow ones (Moly), since yellow is banned from my garden (apart from Daffs, and occasional dash of yellow if strictly associated with edibles), they had to go into small pots to be used as doorstep delights or possibly given away.

Invested in a large crackle ball solar stick light in a bargain store to mark my mini pond that is a H&S hazard for any delivery people shamelessly trying to cut the corner of my front path by stepping into my precious flower bed. Autumn leaves can fill it in a day so it becomes a proper bear trap. Anyways, the mini pond is a nice thing to have something to look at in a place where nothing grows. There's an old solar fountain pump without the head just making plop-plop-plop with the water, a Tesco delivery man was most interested in it.

 

Nothing today!

 

Meh, back stroke I think

 

Nothing, I can't swim

 

Nothing today went to see a friend.

 

Yesterday sowed chitted sweet pea seed in greenhouse, a bit of weeding, then raked and babbed more leaves.

 

Instead of doing some necessary weeding (the soil is saturated) I spent yesterday afternoon with a very knowledgeable gardening friend buying plants at Farmyard nurseries. I had to remind myself we're in a recession and avoid buying too many.
The great thing about Farmyard is that you are welcome to wander through practically all of their polytunnels to find treasures - as long as they're not stock plants you're mostly ok to add them to your trolley. The only thing the owner took out of mine was an unnamed seedling Acer with excellent foliage shape and colour! Never mind, if it turns out good, he'll propagate it .

 

Yesterday some of my seeds arrived. They don't just sell in the UK.

A free packet of tomato

 

I started my side yard renovation a bit earlier than planned. Last weekend, while we were out, we received a phone call telling us that our dog was out on the road.



I'm assuming that the big gate had been left open but there is no way to be sure.

The renovation was going to wait until the spring but under the circumstances I thought I had better make a start straight away.



This is the point I am up to. It took me all day as I had to it on my own. I find lining up posts very difficult especially with nobody to hold them for me. The fence panel was also awkward. It came already made which was great but I needed to trim it to length and when I came to fit it I discovered that the rails and pails weren't square. In the end I put a brick on the floor at either end and it looked alright to the eye.

The next step will be to install a chain link fence from the foremost fence post to the main boundary fence post (behind the hedge). That will secure the perimeter and in time the hedge will grow up to and through the chain link. I have all the pieces I need. All I want is a nice day when I have the time to her on with it.

G.

 

Do we detect the merest glimmer of a hint of humidity chez shiney?