What did you do in your garden today?

[Meadowlark]

That Lobjoits green cos is a good one. Hope it works for you.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Got it done today. Split up a tree I felled last year to make the new compost heap and moved the top compost across. I didn't sieve it when i got down a bit, but ran it through with the fork and took out a lot of stuff that wasn't rotting, put it through the mower and added it to the new heap, the small stuff i put on top of the wood and then shook it down well so it filled in the gaps. I made up a mix of compost from a trough I grew lobelia in last year, manure, soil, a bit of sand, and some leaf mould to top off with and planted the Lobjoits. Lovely white seeds it has, this is my first try of it.
I think my container may be a bit large, the bottom half of a 200liter plastic barrel, I am certainly not going to be picking it up at all, luckily it slides easily. I have a decent gap between the soil and the top, so I will be able to put a plastic cover over if it starts getting cold before I have to slide it into the greenhouse

Did a lot of clearing up of dead leaves from the oak tree and mixed them into the new heap, I usually do them separately, but there are plenty more still on the tree. I have started loading the rest of the old heap into the wheelbarrow to use as mulch, tomorrow is another day.
In between times I am building a wood store from two thirds of a five foot fence panel, a couple of bits of trellis, and some posts, all joined up with various bits of strip. I is actually looking quite decent, and is pretty solid and stable, though I shall attach it to the side of the shed. Don't want a load of logs toppling over on me when I take a couple out for the stove.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Double post

 

[YumYum]

Expecting a freeze in the morning!

 

[DirtMechanic]

Expecting a freeze in the morning!

I have some 700 feet of garden hose in retractable boxes that I drained and cleaned, shutting down the irrigation lines.

 

[Sean Regan]

Start of the leaf collecting season, the first, is always the big acer in the front garden.

Some of the leaves fall on the azaleas, so I have to drag them out by hand. More fall between the azaleas and the party fence.
It's a pain to drag them out with a lawn rake, then use my trusty Grizzly garden vac. to collect the rest.
Doesn't look much, but it took me an hour to clear them and they filled the green bin.
It'll be a weekly job, as there's a lot more to come down.

It's quite a tall tree, the top is level with the eaves of the roof.

In a couple of months, it will be time for its annual prune. I take up to a foot off it all round. Trying to retain the lolly pop shape.
Easy enough with my Barnel telescopic pruner for the thinner branches and my Fiskars lopper, which I extended by adding a six foot pole to the long handle and more string to work the jaws. I can easily reach the top branches without having to use a ladder.

 

[Owdboggy]

I too collected leaves, mostly from the huge Birch tree.

 

[Sean Regan]

I often describe our back garden as "low maintenance," quite unjustifiably so, early in the year. But for a few weeks around now, before the leaves fall in earnest, it is.
Nothing's been done in it for well over a week now.

Apart from a few roses, the only colours other than green, are the acers and the berries on our sorbus, the most we've ever seen.
They'll start to fall within the next two weeks, as will the leaves on the acers, if we get a frost.

We're still getting nightly visits from the black and white cat, on mouse patrol. But it's the only thing being picked up by the trail cameras. No sightings of "Marcel." This maybe because I put mouse bait in the garage, as it's impossible to stop a mouse getting in although, there's nowhere for them to nest and I don't keep pet food in there. So if he met his demise by getting in there and eating the bait, "it's his own fault."
The grey cat, which was always trying to get at the hedgehog's dinner, hasn't been around for a couple of weeks. "He may have gone on his holidays."

The front garden today looks as if I'd not collected any leaves, but I won't clear any more until Sunday, weather permitting.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Nothing's been done in it for well over a week now.

You should try putting practice

 

[Sean Regan]

You should try putting practice

Unfortunately, it's the wrong sort of grass and if you do try to putt on it, it spoils your game for when you're on a proper green.
I do occasionally try chipping over the sambucus with a 58 degree lob wedge. But you have to be careful as if you get a "flyer" It could end up in the garden behind ours.

 

[Sean Regan]

Too wet to do anything in the garden today.
This is the time of year when the acer palmatums start to turn red.

It's been several years since they've gone that attractive "firey red," as it depends entirely on when we get the first frost.
In which case, the leaves just shrivel and start dropping.
We've a chance this year, as the weather is still quite mild.

This one conversely, still has a lot of new growth.

 

[Sean Regan]

Mowed the lawn and collected some leaves.

Today's main job.


The feature bed in the middle of our garden is shared by this Sambucas in the summer.

But at this time of the year, it looks a bit sorry for itself.

It'll get a prune after Christmas.
So it swaps places with this Mimosa.

This is already showing blooms forming.

Just a question of heaving out the whole tub.
The idea is that these several slow growing azaleas will eventually hide the tubs, but I've been saying that for nearly ten years.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I was down B&Q the other day and they were selling orange buckets, £1 each, so I bought a couple, drilled an inch hole in the center of the bottom then six smaller drill holes round the edge of each. One I half filled with stuff that had blown off the oak tree in a storm the other day, part live twigs, part slightly larger dead stuff. The other got hornbeam logs cut to size and split, to the same depth. I have a black bag full of stuff that came out from in, off, and under the hedge during the summer, that was put through a sieve and kept damp in a sunny place. it is sort of crumbly, full of wood chips and decay. I put two good double handfulls of this into each bucket and worked it down into the gaps, finishing by bashing it down with a heavy pole. They were topped off with a mix of composts, manure, bonemeal and fertiliser.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

The buckets make smaller, more manageable containers, with a handle. Now there is a tip, if you grow things in a bucket stick a bamboo in to hold the handle up so you don't have to lift it up through foliage later, I discovered that with my agapanthus. Now comes the point where I decide what to do with them. I could leave them 'til Spring, let everything settle and start the rotting process. On the other hand I planted my spare broad bean seeds in pots the other day thinking I can fill in any gaps in the main row, and I reckon I will have a few over, I could put some in each bucket to see how they compare. It could put a bit of extra nitrogen in as well.

 

[Sheal]

Notice anything familiar Oliver. The image was taken in 2015 and I'd had those buckets a few years - they cost me a £1 each too.