WHAT JOBS ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY - 2017

A bit nippy from today onwards with a possibility of snow . I'm going to try and cut back some more ferns today and do a bit more removing of moss from the beds. Three more apple trees need pruning as does the wisteria. Ivy needs cutting back as well.

Just looking at that is making me tired so I had better have a rest.

 

First there, first served, Kandy

 

Good intentions yesterday - came to nothing.

 

A knock on the door this morning was the delivery of my ordered Fritillary Imperialis [3 red and 3 yellow]. When I opened the box I found they'd included an extra bulb for each colour giving me 8 bulbs instead of the expected six. They are really good quality, well packed and separated into the two colours with the usual instructions on care. I've filled two freezer bags half full with compost and put the bulbs into them and marked the bags, so that I know which is which, to ensure the bulbs don't dry out while I wait for the weather to get a little milder, for me, so that I can plant them. I've already got a couple of orange variety that I planted over 30 years ago and which are still going strong. I put that down to the fact that I took the advice, at the time, of a gardener at Arley Hall who recommended that I plant them at least 12 inches deep and on their side. I'm thinking of planting them in two groups of both colours, one group of 5 and the other a group of 3. All I have to do is find a place to plant them

 

We got quite a lot done yesterday (me doing the least - but I did do the shopping and cooking).

All ivy on house taken down to 12" below the eaves and all tidied up. Apart from Mrs Shiney using the ivy in her flower arranging the birds always nest in the ivy, especially wrens.

The wisteria was pruned and our jungle type area near the road was pruned back, cleared of too much ivy, weeded and composted.

The bed by the footpath was tidied up of all the dead Autumn growth and rat poison put down all the rat holes in it. We can't have them attacking the passers by . We don't usually put down poison unless the population seems to be increasing too much. One hole OK, eleven holes - bad!

 

Yep, slightly misleading in my "a group of 5 and a group of 4", Shiney, with only 8 bulbs. What I should have added was that the group of 4 would have included one of the already long planted Fritillary Imperialis by planting the new ones alongside it. Detail, detail, detail!! One thing you do notice straightaway when opening a bag with Fritillary Imperialis in it is the "Earthy" pong!!

 

Hi Carolinet, I bought them on e-Bay from bulb1. They sell them singly or in numbers and I bought 3 [getting one free to make 4] for £11.75p, they were sent via Hermes the courier, and were really well packed. To me they were really good value.