What did you do in your garden today?

[Sean Regan]

No rain but very strong winds.

This has stripped almost all the remaining leaves, from the big acer in the front garden

Same with the two acer palmatums.

I've moved the two "tree azaleas" in their ceramic pots from their stone circles at the back of the lawn, to the path to the side of the tea-house, as they're in leaf and could otherwise get blown
over.

Although the tea-house has a large area of roof over its veranda, I never worry about damage from strong winds. The turned up corners of the roof act like a "reverse aeroplane wing," and there's as much air pressing down on it as forcing it up. Well.. That's my theory for the last 36 years.

I've put new batteries in the cameras and made a new support from a piece of dowel and a larger cover from the lid of an ice cream tub for this one.

It's a bit late in the day, they might hibernate at any moment.

Still not as bad as this. For years, I'd opened a door in the teahouse on extremely hot days, as I didn't want my jukeboxes, "cooking." It does have roof vents and two near the floor in the back wall, these I open in the summer. But that wasn't enough for when it was very hot.
The year we had the fox cubs underneath the building, (2017), I didn't want to leave a door open, as they got older they were out during the day and would have gone in it.

So when it started to get warm, I bought and installed this extractor fan at the top of the front wall over the middle door and put it on a timer. This meant I didn't need to leave a door open.

Two days later their mother took them out of the garden and we never saw them again!


If it stays dry tomorrow, I'll do some leaf gathering, it's green bin day on Wednesday, so It'll be empty for Thursday if there's more to clear.

 

[big rockpile]

Blowed and Shredded Leaves.

Then my Neighbor brought me a plant.

big rockpile

 

[Sean Regan]

Sad day, went to the funeral of a golf pal I'd known for more than twenty years. Lots of club members there

Cleared a lot more leaves this afternoon, stopped when the bin was full and it started to rain.
It will be collected tomorrow, so I will be prepared for more leaf collection later in the week if it ever stops raining.

I have a problem with the back fence behind the "bamboo forest." It has five concrete posts which support the four and a half panels
.

The middle post has disintegrated. There's just the stump left.

What has happened is the soft metal rods that strengthen the concrete, similar to rebar, have rusted and blasted out the concrete. I was left with bits of post swinging on the reinforcing bars.
So I had to get in there and hacksaw them off.

I've got a quote for a replacement post fitted and the stump taken away, of just under a hundred quid. It will have to be fixed from the garden behind ours, as there's better access and the level of that garden is lower. I'll have to go round and see the people tonight to get their permission for the guy to do it.

More rain scheduled tomorrow, but it's a golf day and it's a competition, so if the course is open as it has been most days, though fewer holes, I'll go.
But I'll put my wet gear on before I leave the house as if we play, I'll need it.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Not a thing, it rained all day, puddles in places feet across and inches deep.

 

[big rockpile]

Watered again and then repotted.

big rockpile

 

[big rockpile]

I know sound like a broken record. Yes I watered.

Got a ride to town got feed and stuff for Living Soil.

Came home and Blowed Leaves.

big rockpile

 

[Sean Regan]

Re-fixed the tea-house guttering drainpipe this morning, whilst my car was away for its service and MOT. It came back with a clean bill of health, despite the fact I bought it now eighteen years ago.
My attitude is always, "if something needs doing, do it." But nothing did.

The replacement of the concrete fence post, (when it's done), presents a problem.

You can see a white line between the wooden fence panel and the concrete base panel. That's light shining through.

Below it, I had two cables between the bamboo and the fence, suspended on rings attached to the base panels.
Over 20-odd years, the roots of the bamboo have built up, (it doesn't creep much, less than six inches in all this time). So the cables "disappeared."
The lights have never failed to work since I installed them, they and others are controlled by four switches behind the lounge curtains, via a multi-strand armoured cable between the house and the garage, buried below the concrete base of the patio,


One provides power for the two "stone" lanterns, the other for the 30w spotlight behind the pagoda. The 12v transformers are on the ceiling of the tea-house and the cables travel down the white conduit to the base panel behind the drainpipe of the guttering.

When the post is replaced the cables could get damaged, or buried in concrete, so I turned off the supply from the consumer unit in the garage and I cut the cables at the tea-house end and dragged them through. Once the fence is repaired, I'll put them back but I'll put them in conduit.

I might get some new cable and conduit tomorrow, so I'll be able to get it done as soon as the fence is repaired.

 

[big rockpile]

Watered and Shredded Leaves.

big rockpile

 

[Sean Regan]

It's dry today and sunny, but I didn't fancy playing golf as the course would be very wet as it rained all night. There's a puddle on the patio, it would normally have drained away by now so the ground must be saturated. I may clear some more leaves this afternoon and strip these on the side of the house. It will at least keep the drive clear.

I may have a problem when this fence post gets replaced.

I might lose some of the bamboo. Fortunately there's a lot of growth further away from the fence, but the roots tend to" bunch" and are hard to separate. I'll try replanting any that are disturbed and see how it recovers.
My "plan B" is to cut out some out from the left-hand end to replace any that don't take.
The cable is just the low voltage feed for the trailcam, from a socket in the tea-house.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Yesterday more rain came. Like Sean my ground is also saturated, despite it being fine today

 

[Sean Regan]

This is the problem I'll have, reconnecting the two Japanese lanterns and the spotlight behind the pagoda. Although it's only 12v, but I don't really like using connectors when they'll be exposed to the elements.

The adapters for them are here on the ceiling of the tea-house. There's also sockets for fairy lights, they are all controlled by the switches in the lounge.

The switches by the door are for the ceiling downlighters and a mains isolator.
I want to run new low voltage cables from the tea-house down to a connection box in the opposite corner of the garden, behind the hedgehog house.
It'd be a pain to try to connect them and run them through the ceiling panel above the transformers. So I needed to see where they went above the ceiling. Thirty years or so, is a long time to remember "what you did where."
I needed to have a look in the ceiling void.
When I changed the illumination in here to downlighters twenty years ago, I cut this inspection hatch. The TV aerial and the roof vent which I store on hooks here during the winter are to the left.

I found that I'd left plenty of slack in both cables so I can connect them from here by the hatch, without removing a ceiling panel. After 36 years it's still bone dry here under the roof.

There's a lot of power sockets in this building. It comes in via an alkathene pipe, buried deep in the border between the tea-house and the garage. The timers are for the 60w heaters in the jukeboxes.

Plus two more you can't see.

As well as a double pole isolator by the door, the tea-house and the shed share a consumer unit in the shed.

This is independent of the consumer unit that powers the garage and our freezer room at the back of it. Everything is identified so I know what's going where.

Plus of course this big RCCB that protects everything.

You can't be too careful

 

[Sean Regan]

I got a bit done this afternoon.

Stripped the leaves off this wisteria and pruned off a few branches that had bolted. It's an easy enough job, so is collecting the leaves. The real pain is the spines of the leaves as the vac won't suck them up, I have to sweep them into piles and pick them up by hand. Still the jobs done now until the main prune between Christmas and New Year.

Did a bit of "housekeeping." Stuck the vacuum cleaner I use for the car down the tumble dryer vent. Never get much out but worth checking, some bits do stick to the side of the pipe.

Cleared a load more leaves that had fallen from the big acer. This may be the last collection, the rest I'll probably let rot down. I'll take six to nine inches off it all round as I do every year in a few week's time.

 

[Logan]

Finished planting the tulip bulbs and polyanthus in this border.

Cut off the old leaves from the hellebores to plant the hyacinth bulbs and the polyanthus.

 

[Sean Regan]

I've brought in the trailcams, the extension leads and adaptors. I've taken out the batteries and I'm letting everything warm up and dry out, to clear any moisture before packing them away in a box until next year.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

So the fox, cats, hedgehogs, mice, and a stray ferret are out playing end of season party games tonight