What Jobs Are We Doing In The Garden Today 2019

Good afternoon @Mike Allen my friend you are in my thoughts,take it easy

 

Had a trip to the Local (5 miles away) Plant Nursery to pick up two medium sized green glazed pots, two sacks of Coarse Sharp Sand and two sacks of Potting Grit. Back home, leaving Jenny the Cat snoozing on the sofa, I got down on my knees on the patio to sort out the last four of the Bearded Iris pots. I'm getting, on average, 4 to 6 new corms from each pot which are ending up in a bucket after I chosen the best corm to plant back in the pots. Just as I'd finished the four pots I discovered one more, big and heavy, pot on the top tier of the two tiered long wooden bench which I lifted from the tier, took out about 4 corms, chose the best one, added some new compost and put back. The temperature has been around the low 50f's, so not too uncomfortable and made the job easier, so that's a major job done until the Spring, when I start feeding them. There's still a lot of bulbs to be planted along with around 20 or so Hardy Perennials.......with more in the mail.

 

What's happened to the slippers and nighty?

 

That's me!

 

We've now removed the large Euonymous that was badly infected with Euonymous scale. We had first cut it down from being over 8ft high and approx an 8ft diameter to this


We were then going to cut it right back and remove the stump but it turned out that the tits (all types) went mad over the scale and we left it for most of the month whilst they feasted. So a few days ago we removed the stump and dumped it on the bonfire heap


Then dug over the ground and added compost


I also pressure hosed the paving around it as it was thick with black mould.

I had cleared one part of the veg plot and got Lewis to roll back the porous weed membrane, dig it over, add compost and dig it in and then roll the plastic back. I still need to adjust the plastic so that it's smooth. The lower sections are where we don't dig or compost as they are the walking paths


As we had emptied the current compost heap during this time we needed to get to some of the better rotted compost at the bottom of the newer heaps. We were then able to continue composting.

These are the two lower portions of the compost heaps




The old, empty heap is now fairly full with the top of the other two but it should settle down quickly




I've started tidying up the greenhouse (yes, that's tidy compared to what it was!) and bringing in the more delicate plants.

 

I moved four 125 liter Bales of compost from the Garage to the side passage. I moved them on a Porters Trolley, but even so was out of puff by the time I'd done as they weigh more than 97lbs each There's still 11 bales stacked up in the Garage ready for next year so I won't run out soon. I've also got a sturdy metal table that I want to place in the side passage so that I can use it as a potting table with the bales of compost sitting right beside it. I've still got to sweep up the pile of compost on the Patio which accumulated from my lifting the Bearded Iris from their pots, cutting the leaves and roots back while also throwing those corms I didn't want into the Compost Bins, but that's a tomorrow job. That compost will be added to the borders which is where all my used compost ends up. There's also lots of different varieties of Bulbs that need planting so if the weather is fine and warm enough I'll get on with that. I have 50 bulbs of Allium Nectorascordum which I will plant in large 6 cell trays rather than just planting them in the borders like other Alliums. I find that they don't like too much damp when raising them so I make a mixture of sand, grit, and some compost for fast draining. I'm also contemplating raising them in the "warm room" of the House where I raise the Tomator plants just as an extra coddling of them. I'm still waiting for the leaves on the Trees to drop as I need to take off a large bough which is shading a border and also the lawn too much. The Roses are still flowering away so there's still plenty of colour in the garden, while the Birds are emptying the three Bird Feeders as fast as I can fill them!.........do they know something we don't, like a Hard Winter coming??