WHAT JOBS ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY 2018

I'm brushing my leaves on the borders to rot down over the winter. We get more leaves from our neighbour's trees which accumulate in our garden - some go in my leaf bin but some go back over the fence along with their rotten apples.

 

Spent the morning in the polytunnel which was 29 degrees. Dug canna cleopatra out of the planter which had multiplied well, giving me 5 new plants. Then dug out canna musafolia which was much more difficult to get out of the tub. That gave me 7 new plants - all tucked away for winter.

Then took 3 pups from Aloe Aristata.

Its been a good day for free plants.

 

wow! Muscles aching and a bit puffed
Got up early to attack overgrown sycamores on top 80' boundary this morning. A job
I have delayed too long . A promised chain saw did not arrive so I used a brand new bowsaw. A couple of ladders and a heavy pair of loppers too. On the other side, large privately owned land but neglected and overgrown, the branches can be left so saving some work there. Some dicey moments, masses of big branches hit the dust, some dodging and some risks, ready to leap off the ladder at times but, hey ho! Job done. (No, no birds' nests folks)

Oh! And I found a couple of nice terracotta pots there too

Beautiful day so I may get some on the ground gardening done later

 

This afternoon I've emptied a bulk bag of horticultural grit onto what will be an arid bed. The bag went nowhere so another 2 bulk bags now ordered.

 

Same here. Too cold outdoors so I decided that it was time that my Ceropegia woodii came in to the porch for the winter. As the stems are anything up to five metres and have been wrapped around the pot a few times I spent the afternoon untangling it all and giving it a snip. So hopefully in a few weeks the cuttings will have taken and I'll have a few to play with. I also managed tpo harvest the first seeds from it today as well.

 

The olive trees got a light pruning and were moved from the deck into the greenhouse for a conditioning period of warm days and cool nights.

 

A bit more tidying around my potting bench. Bags of compost, 3 types , have been moved and the overspill attended to. I found a bag of bark I hadn't realised was there too, bonus!
I've moved and filled the birdbath, and filled the feeders and apart from lots of sweeping that's been about it

 

Yet another day pulling out 40litre trug-fulls of sheeps sorrel from the "grass". It is about the only living plant in the top half of the grass, after the summer drought (still can count on two hands the number of days of rain since March).
Not sure if there is another approach to this problem, without using herbicide....?

 

Planted out thalictrum but mainly started clearing the ground for a new planting scheme. White phlox, hydrangea Love, white astilbe, ferns, acer dissectum purpureum, sanguisorba Blackthorn, hymenocallis, persicaria Polymorpha are all in line to add there.
Beautiful sunny day again

 

Thanks @ARMANDII

It makes sense...

Our "soil" is quite acidic. Rhododendrons grow well here, if fed. Hydrangeas flower blue.

I'm not sure how liming would work, as the site is sloping, so any lime would be washed away. I'll investigate when to add for the optimal effect. I will keep pulling out from below the rosettes, as it at least slows it down.

One thing that the RHS doesn't say is that if mowed, even on a high setting, the base of the plant is very spikey under a bare foot!!