WHAT JOBS ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY 2018

Took Nico to the beach earlier.....blustery, invigorating and it was sunny until we got back.

Getting to the time, not quite yet, when heleniums and the like are cut down and ideas are filling my head for future planting combinations.
Already, agapanthus Golden Drop has been moved and ophiopogon nigrescens clumps being considered as companions.

 

This morning I cut down my large ferns - they suffered from the drought and grew prostrate instead of their usual shuttlecock style.
I planted heucheras in the raised bed alongside my newly refurbished pond. I'll plant small bulbs in between them for more interest in the spring. The bulbs, primroses and helleborus dug out from the area where the pond is now have been moved to the bottom of the garden to overwinter. Good performers will be moved back next year.

 

One of our buddleia has snapped in the storm sadly :windy: Otherwise not looking too bad out there. Hoping for a dry weekend to give the grass a cut, and give the decking a coat of wood preserve.

 

Started cutting the tree down, come to a halt my chainsaws died on me leave it until tomorrow see if it kicks in again if not anyone know who's got a chainsaw sale on

 

Yesterday took a while to get to my companions after the storm. Roads were pretty much littered with branches when I left at 5.30am.
Must have had a fair bit of rain too as her lawn was on the verge of being too wet but managed a light cut and so far it’s looking ok for the winter period. Far to wet for her cylinder little push mower.
Took the opportunity to seed a few patches as well.

 

@Liz the pot , looking at that verdant lawn, I don't think I'll be posting photos of mine - the waves of pity/disgust would be overwhelming!!

Yesterday's gardening started with a desperate dash outside to re-stake the young medlar tree, in the height of a squall, as it was touching the toes of the neighbouring tree. Fortunately there was a hammer near to hand to re-drive in the heavy-duty tent peg. I don't think the tree was going to take much more bending.

After a few hours drying out indoors, whilst working on my latest drawing, it was back out to rake some of the dead thatch and moss out from the top of the garden, just below the pond. Grass always struggles to grow there, and even the weeds haven't done well in the months of drought. After the rain this morning, the dead moss came out well with fingers, so I got the scarifying rake out. Hard work, but I got 160l of compressed moss/dead grass off a small section. I will probably sow some wildflower seeds in the cleared space, so they can get established during the damper autumn and winter. We have had dry springs for the last 6 years...

 

My day started late as I had commitments this morning that took me into town. My wife was off work today so it was a nice change to do things together. It's very rare we go into town so we try to make the most of it when we do. It was somewhere around 3pm when I finally got down to some gardening. I was determined to finish the job I started last weekend. Actually I started it back in March but this time I did it properly. I dug most of the grass and levelled the soil off the best I could. I left plenty of grass in there so it should grow back in the spring. It's not as level as I would have liked it but I'm sure it will be good enough. Whilst I was there I took the opportunity to dappled the bed with snowdrops bulbs I harvested from elsewhere in the garden. Hopefully the snowdrops will come and go before the grass needs cutting again. By that time the lamium should be started to grow back again too.

G.

 

I'm now left with a wheelbarrow full of grassy soil. I have nowhere to put it and I can't use my wheelbarrow for anything else in the meantime. If the soil were clean I could use it again but I don't want to spread it around the garden as it is.

G.

 

Did get out for an hour when the rain stopped. I'm moving a few box plants (again) so I can enlarge the space around my greenhouse to make room for overwintering pots. I haven't got round to moving them yet, they are still in the ground while I cut up the lawn for their new home. The turfs are being rehoused in a rougher part of the garden which is in need of leveling. Why is gardening always a "work in progress"
The pond has a little fountain retrieved from a wall fountain and capped with a cut up old spoon to stop the water going everywhere.

 

Nothing, apart from pick a few runner beans, and bring the last 4 chilli-plants in from the veg bed (we're forecast temps as low as 5 or 6c tonight) -
- - - Because - - -

It's raining!!

hallelujah!!

 

With a week (and then some) off from doing my local non-league side's match programme, I think this week will be mostly spent sorting the one remaining bit of the garden that I'm not happy with.



All 4 of the cordylines, previously in this bed, have been wiped out by the snow earlier this year and, bar a stump I need to dig out, now find themselves in the bin. Time to turn this particular bed into a show piece. The plan is to place a rhododendron either side of a camellia (all of which you can just about see in the photo) that we'll train on a trellis in an attempt to hide as much of the fence as possible whilst adding some much needed colour to this side of the garden.

Ideally I'd attach the trellis to the fence, using a few battens, so that I can underplant it. But I'm not sure that is going to be possible with the style of fence panel that we have.

 

Started clearing the pot marigolds and weeding for the wallflowers.