What Jobs Are We Doing in the Garden Today... MK3.. 2013

Noticed that the interesting plant man had a rather lonely looking Winter Sweet (Chimonanthus praecox) on his market stall yesterday so decided to take it home - its still quite mild here, Im tempted to plant it out, its got a decent root ball so should be OK as long as make sure it doesnt get waterlogged ?

 

If it stays nice this afternoon I'll finish clearing away all the phlox etc. I filled the garden waste bin yesterday and now it's been emptied this morning I can fill it again

 

Cleared the last of the leaves up and tied up my Trachycarpus before the winds come tomorrow.
Pick some echinacea seed heads
Roll on spring!

 

Gorgeous day out in the garden today. Final (hopefully) raking and gathering of leaves, this time from the wooded section. Under the carpet of leaves discovered snowdrops just starting and daffs just poking their noses out of the soil. Also did some cutting back of some very out of control shrubs and small trees.
I'm going to have tons of leaf mould in the future.

GG

 

BTW, does anyone think I may have over-wrapped the cordyline? Is there a chance it could die due to receiving no light and only limited air? Just seems to me we've run into a milder band of weather before winter sets in. If it was minus 10 I'd be more than happy with this covering to give it a fighting chance. But could I overdo it?

 

Went outside armed with a yard brush and brushed up all the remaining leaves. They'd all blown to the east of the garden which was handy so they went into my green bin. Tidied up a few of my pots. The antirrhinums are still flowering...they've been stars this year. Refilled the bird feeders and repaired one that broke in the recent bad weather and put some suet pellets on the bird table. Then I wandered around for a bit trying to decide what to plant where next year and realised that I've probably got too much seed for next season.....still, I can always buy a few more interesting looking planters and these will obviously need to be filled with plants!

 

I had 17 sacks of leaves ready for the tip from last weekend - after the really bad winds in the middle of the week 9 of them they had been swirled all around the garden so have had to rake up again. Bad enough doing it once but to have to do it again - won't repeat what I thought it - plus the wind had blown a fence down!

 

Commiserations GA how we have have all been there before...
I'm usually a bit rubbish at leaf bagging in previous years but since it's been mild I've been a bit diligent this year and been bagging up more leaves today which took ages. Rewarded with a handsome red and purple close to the day and stunning western sky at 4ish.

 

General clearing up of dead foliage and was going to clear under my Roses until i saw dozens of Forgetmenots under the debris...i remember lifting them earlier this year and then shaking them over my Rose border....more than happy

 

Gave the herbaceous border its autumn tidy up, been waiting for a dry weekend for about a month now to get it done.
I tend to let things seed themselves around and get on with it, so the autumn tidy usually turns up a few surprises and free plants.

This years discoveries included an Echinops seedling (now potted up), some white campion which must have found its way there from the wildflower patch and several healthy looking foxgloves and teasels, some of which which have been relocated elsewhere.

A less pleasing find was a good sized patch of that insidious creeping weed, sheep sorrel. Its been lurking under the hedge nearby for a few years now and has now made its move into the border. It absolutely thrives in my dry, sandy soil and will spread with great enthusiasm given half a chance.
So out it came, just hope I got it all.

 

Been tidying up after the storm last week, cut back a couple of climbing roses that had got a bit out of control, planted 5 barerooted roses, rose rugosa

 

Decided to give the neighbours conifer hedge a trim, maybe overdone it?

 

Excellent JazzSi. Everything around will be so excited at all that light next year. Your are gonna have great fun in the GH in 2014,
Jenny