What did you do in your garden today?

[Oliver Buckle]

Made a discovery you put Mulch down to hold moisture in or draw it out of the ground but if there is no moisture there it is just laying there making nice place to walk bare foot. I know Grey Matter!

It always seems damp under mulch, maybe the water is drawn up from below and doesn't evaporate. I had always thought that as stuff decomposes it turns to carbon-dioxide and water and that was where it came from, but I guess there is always some damp in England.

 

[blenor]

Turned out to be a nice sunny afternoon. Lifted a few potatoes - mostly fir apple. No damage as they seem to be resistant to slugs. A carrier bag full of mixed apples. A few plum tomatoes from a greenhouse. Some curly kale. Even a few (last of) onions. A good sized Crown prince squash.

 

[big rockpile]

Cleaned bunch of plants out of the Greenhouse. They went to the trash because they are highly invasive.

Been waiting on my son to till the garden so I could plant Cover Crop. Never got Tilled and my wife says it's my fault. Ok!

big rockpile

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Planted a bunch of broad bean seed in pots, mice tend to get them in the ground. Last year I grew borlotti beans, we used a few, but the rest went to seed and I thought 'I'll grow them as green manure'. I already have a couple of rows of broad beans, but it made me think they would make good green manure as they grow over winter when I am not using the ground, and there were loads left in the packet, so I thought I would grow a bunch for seed for next year.
Onion sets arrived yesterday and I planted some in pots to see if I can grow some really nice big ones, pottered a bit but that was about it as i went for my flu vaccine yesterday afternoon and then went shopping for birthday present, card and wrapping paper for the missus.

Big rockpile, I have a few jobs I haven't caught up on, good to know it is your fault

 

[Sean Regan]

Either side of some shopping and attending to the laundry (and watching a bit of tennis and track cycling on TV) I did quite a bit in the gardens.
I collected "a green bin-full" of leaves that have fallen off the big acer in the garden. A lot more yet to come down. Then it will get it's annual prune.

I don't have to poke around under the azaleas to get at them, I can blow them to the back with my Grizzly garden vac. and then just sweep them up.
I keep clear this part of the garden next to the fence I errected forty years ago which separates our garden from next door. Other houses have low post and panel fences, but I wanted something that doesn't notice as much.

The leaves on the acer palmatums in the back garden are beginning to turn their "firey red" as they do every year. How red they will get depends on whether the frost holds off for a week or so.

I gave the "bamboo forest" a bit of a trim. There was quite a bit of foliage drooping over.

 

[big rockpile]

Spent the day throwing away plants. Had one I just couldn't so Dear you have a vine you can't kill and you can just let it grow all over the house.

big rockpile

 

[big rockpile]

Finally got my Cover Crop planted and watering it now.

Planted Beets again in Raised Beds. We shall see.

Watered everything.

Son was mad tilling my garden because I left so much in it. I told him he didn't have to till it real well just open it up a little. I told him by Spring it should be rotted down a bunch.

big rockpile

 

[Oliver Buckle]

There is a bed beside the pond where lawn drains to and the pond overflows into when it rains hard so it is sometimes a couple of inches deep in water. I lifted one of the paving stones surrounding it a while ago and dug a channel filled with rubble and re-covered, but it still floods, so yesterday I set about it. Dug a new channel and set a rainwater downpipe in it with a hole at the start filled with rubble. It has been raining a lot recently, so it was sloshy, unpleasant work with the bottom of the channel filled with clay and water, but that did allow me to see that I had all the slopes right, the water gave me a level. I filled in and replaced the grass and it has drained everything off, creating a rather soggy patch further down. I shall deal with this at a later date when it is a bit drier, trying to decide whether to create a dipping pond for the nearby flower bed or a soak-away.
I have planted 70mordinary onion sets and put 10 in pots to see if I can grow some really big ones, I also have 10 red onions in pots and have prepared he patch to plant out the rest, hoed it and then hoes in a mixture of manure, blood and bone, wood ash and small bits of burnt clay. We are supposed to get our first named storm today so I might wait a while before putting the sets in, I did the rest without having to go on it, but even with planks it is a bit wet for walking on, and going to get wetter later.

 

[Sean Regan]

Too wet to do anything in the garden today, I'll just watch the acers go a progressively deeper red.

 

[Charlie 001]

Weather blinking weather who would want to work in this weather . Mind you, I’ve always said if you’re not enjoying working in your garden then you’re doing it wrong
today I stood undercover watching the puddles swell on my law, took a large swig on a very peaty whiskey and smiled

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Those acers really are a good colour, Sean. It makes all the different greens around them stand out as well.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

today I stood undercover watching the puddles swell on my law,

under cover / undercover
Do we have a secret agent in our midst?

Sorry Charlie, couldn't resist.

 

[Charlie 001]

under cover / undercover
Do we have a secret agent in our midst?

Sorry Charlie, couldn't resist.

I’m glad you didn’t pick on all the other spelling and grammatical errors . And yes I am watching you

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Actually I do notice them all over the place, writing is one of my hobbies. Mostly I ignore them, so long as it you can understand the sense of what's meant, what difference does it make? The idea of a secret agent infiltrating a gardening forum though...
May be because a group of spies are using it to pass coded information all over the world; hmmmn, could be a story there

 

[Charlie 001]

Actually I do notice them all over the place, writing is one of my hobbies. Mostly I ignore them, so long as it you can understand the sense of what's meant, what difference does it make? The idea of a secret agent infiltrating a gardening forum though...
May be because a group of spies are using it to pass coded information all over the world; hmmmn, could be a story there

The gardener and the spy by Bill Lambron. Or the constant gardener? Otherwise I can only think of some nice little gentle mysteries There is a gap in the market for your spy story I will look forward to reading it