What Jobs Are We Doing in the Garden Today... MK2..

I brushed and swept the main paths clear of leaves and debris. My borders are higher than the paths and consequently there's always a natural spillage of soil which gets shovelled back onto the borders. I'm still not cutting down a lot of the dead foliage as it serves as a good protection for some plants and also for insects. The Compost Heap has got beyond 8' in height and is still climbing and the Cats love it as they can get a good view of everything going on I've had to be careful when using a stiff brush and shovel as I know there is a Hedgehog around some where and I don't want to disturb it if possible. I did gently check the Compost Heap but couldn't see a sign of it, it'll probably turn up in some unexpected place and to be honest there are hundreds of nice dark spots it could be in. I also had a Robin following me around as I was brushing the paths for a while and then he got interested in the Fat Balls on the Feeder and left me to it. It's nice to have clean, uncluttered paths though

 

We got a lot done today as it was so nice and sunny. As usual, Mrs Shiney got more done than me but I mowed all the leaves up in the orchard as the row of polars have dropped their leaves due to the frost. Some of the apple trees still have plenty of leaves. Other trees around the garden also have lots of leaves left.

I then cut back all our blackberry bushes and took out the old growth. This is harder to do than cutting down the brambles along the back fence - which I also did. The blackberries have to be pruned properly whereas the brambles just need hacking. I'm resting now as my back can't take all the bending

 

It's OK Loli, if you have withdrawal symptoms you can come and do some of ours.

 

The frost cleared the leaves from some of our trees, particularly the poplars, but two apple trees are still in full leaf (all the other apples are bare), the willow is still covered in leaves as are all the lilacs and the big prunus still has loads.

 

We've still got lots of leaves to come down.

I've mowed this lawn four times in the last week . It's the only way I can get the leaves up quickly - and the mower chops them. I took these photos monday eveningjust before it got too dark. I had previously cleared all the leaves on Sunday morning!





Got loads to get out of the flower beds!