What did you do in your garden today?

[Sean Regan]

Busy day (again) I seem to have less time than when I was working.
Snow on the ground first thing, but it soon cleared.

This morning I had to go for "bloods" at the local clinic. This is done a couple of times a year when you're diabetic. Then I had to go up to Bolton to collect my tuner/amp which had been repaired. Then it was shopping.
After lunch, I got into the garden, well.. our drive. I stripped the wisteria.

It got a bit of a prune.


My Grizzly garden vac. helped my clear the leaves.

The ground was too wet to tackle the back garden. It's supposed to be sunny tomorrow, so I might clear those leaves in the afternoon when I come home after golf.



I've got the new to me, tuner/amp up and running. My total outlay on this including the service, was less than £100.

The old one I've put in my office.

 

[big rockpile]

Too much! Planted some plants and Mulched them.

Mulched My Rose's.

Cut two heads of Cabbage.

Have some buckets under our Eve caught 4 buckets of Rain Water one I'm making Compost Tea. The others I dumped in a Barrel in the Greenhouse.

big rockpile

Ordered a book The Amish Way.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Well on the way to refilling my last hole, I had a lot of bits of wood that were too knotty for splitting for the fire, so made it a bit deeper and put them in, then a lot of leaves that I worked down between them. Yesterday I was putting the earth back in, mixing it with leaves as I go, plus other stuff like compost and wood ash. This morning though the garden is white with frost, don't think I will be doing a ot today unless it warms up some. I'm hoping I got everything in under cover that needs it, I think so.
PS You call that smattering a lot of leaves a lot, Sean. Where they blow a bit I have been picking up a foot deep layer. There are oak and birch all around here.

 

[Sean Regan]

We stood on the first tee this morning at 9.00am with the temperature at -1C.
There was frost on the fairway, but further round the sun had melted it, though it lingered where the course was in the shade of trees. It had warmed up by the time we were on the back nine and it was a pleasant sunny day.

I had intended to clear leaves this afternoon, but my garden vac packed up after a couple of minutes. The motor burned itself out. Maybe I was asking too much of it, yesterday. They aren't worth repairing, so I've binned it. I've ordered a Flymo 3000w from Homebase, reduced to £63 from £85. I'll pick it tomorrow morning when I do the shopping. The leaves can wait until tomorrow afternoon.

 

[gary350]

I fertilized, 35 Broccoli, 40 Cauliflower, 35 Cabbage, 4000 Carrots, 60 Romaine lettuce. 30 ft row of potatoes will be ok no fertilizer. It is going to be 37 degrees tonight & 34 Sat. Murfreesboro TN

 

[Sean Regan]

I collected my new Flymo Blower/Vac from Homebase, this morning.
It's a bit fiddly changing from "blow to suck," but it works well and for the same price as a tank of petrol, it's not bad for the money. It comes with a two-year guarantee.
This afternoon I used the new machine to blow some wisteria leaves off the two pergolas and collected most of them up by sweeping, then the rest with the vac. Of course more were falling as I was working and plenty more were coming down off next door's silver birches ending up on the lawn. Then it started to rain. So I came in.
If it's dry tomorrow, I'll strip the wisteria on the garage pergola. I can do that using my step stool. The branches will also get a bit of sorting. I can use my Flymo mower to collect the leaves on the lawn.
The pergola on the back of the house is still heavy with wisteria leaves. I'll need the ladder to strip those and I need to reduce the number of "heads." There's also a 6ft pergola crossbeam that needs replacing, I can do that once the leaves are down and I can see what I am doing.

 

[big rockpile]

I know little late but starting some Onion Seed in the Greenhouse.

Me and my son isn't on the same page on Mulching Leaves.

He has been blowing Leaves up pretty deep then having heck of time Mulching with the Mower. I have been spreading them out.

Went to start the Mower. Nothing so went got a New Battery.

big rockpile

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I know little late but starting some Onion Seed in the Greenhouse.

Me and my son isn't on the same page on Mulching Leaves.

He has been blowing Leaves up pretty deep then having heck of time Mulching with the Mower. I have been spreading them out.

Went to start the Mower. Nothing so went got a New Battery.

big rockpile

I have some onions going, but my maincrop onion seed goes in in January.

 

[Sean Regan]

I got into this wisteria on the pergola attached to the garage this afternoon. I do this around this time every year. I only needed my step-stool to get at it.
I guess a hairdresser would call it, "first time cutting to shape."

There's been a lot of growth during the year, hidden by the foliage. A lot of this growth is unwanted. Any new branch that wants to grow upwards, had to go. I only want lateral growth at the top and branches that cascade over the patio at the side.

It'll get a more detailed pruning between Christmas and New Year.

The other pergola still needs to be stripped. I'll need my big ladder for this. I also need to change a 6ft lateral beam that is showing signs of rot. I'll also check the tops of the two posts at the same time. They have caps over the tops to keep the water out. I may need to re seal them with silicone. The three 16ft main beams are fine.

I used my Flymo Ultraglide mower to collect the silver birch leaves off the lawn.
The patches of moss will get some more iron sulphate this week.

My new Flymo blower vac. Is very good, though it's a pain to swop between the functions, as the nozzles have to be changed and the bag attached or removed. But for the price, it's only a small inconvenience.

The two acer palmatums need the dead wood pruning off, as they do each year.

This one will need more attention to get it back to the "dome shape" I like. Removing the dead wood may leave a gap or two, but I can wire some branches to close them up if necessary. The "fringe" will also need evening up.

I can then remove the wire in the early summer once they have "set."

As usual, there's lots of new growth coming from the tops.

Once these jobs are out of the way, that's pretty much it for the year.

 

[Sean Regan]

As it was dry this afternoon, I pruned the last wisteria.

I removed quite a bit of old growth.
I started at 2.00pm and it only took me half an hour.

Then an hour to clear everything I'd pruned off!

I had to use next door's green bin as ours was full from the pruning of the other wisteria and his empty. The bin men come tomorrow morning, so it's not a problem.

I still need to clear the gutter over the French windows and inspect the tops of the support posts. But I was running out of light. The suspect cross-beam, doesn't really need replacing. I gave it a few coats of Cuprinol in the Spring and looks OK.


This morning I had a round trip of eighty miles to Preston to collect my Stressless chair from Buffalo. It's had the back and the seat re-padded and the front panel of the headrest replaced, I'd worn through the colour of the leather, but it is getting on for fifteen years old. They made a good job of matching of the leather. The back and seat still have a a crease in them, but that's just because the leather has stretched over the years. They would have to over-fill the padding and it would lose the contours. I took the tables and the arm rests off before I took it up there.
I really missed the side tables. It cost £350, but thet's a fraction of the cost of a new chair and it's now very comfortable.

On the way there, I noticed a big tailback on the other carriageway of the M60. I guess there'd been an accident. I've an old TomTom sat/nav. The maps probably haven't been updated for over five years. I'd have to pay if I wanted it done. Although when I bought it, it said the maps would be updated "for life." Five years ago I got the nonsense that the hard drive couldn't accept the updates as there wasn't enough memory.

On the way home, although I didn't really need it once I was back on the motorway, "Sally Satnav," warned me that there was a hold-up ahead, but the planned route would still be the quickest.
"It was the first time she'd ever spoken to me, other than giving directions!"

 

[Sean Regan]

It was a golf day today, so I didn't get into the garden until after 2.00pm. This only gave me a couple of hours to get things done.

But I got into the acer palmatums. This the larger of the two needed a lot of "fettling."

As usual each year there was this much dead wood to come off. But there's plenty of young branches with buds growing from the top.

Then I had to work on getting it back in shape. I like it to be contained as far as possible, within the brick edging, this reduces the amount of moss I get in the lawn in its shadow.

I run garden wire connected to stakes in a circle around it. I can then attach more wires to individual branches and pull them down. You have to be careful as it's hard wood, bend it too much and it will break. But I can shorten the wires a bit in a month or so's time.

Of course, the branches above the lower ones also need training. But they are more pliable.
I can do this by chucking a net over the whole plant and tying it down.

I need to get some more garden wire to finish this off tomorrow.

The lot can come off in April, by which time the branches will have "set."
I have to do this every few years.

The smaller acer had just as much dead wood.

But this won't need much attention. Just a couple of branches wired so that they close a small gap. I might get some pavers to replace the grass that refuses to grow under it.

This acer in the end bed will get a trim tomorrow.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

It's getting cold out there -1 forecast for tonight round here. Filled up the heater in the small greenhouse and set it up. I use a large jam jar full of paraffin with a hole in the lid and a bit of wick through a tube cut and shaped from an old tin can, it goes under a large earthenware flower pot with a length of 3/4 " copper tube going through a hole in the roof from the hole in the bottom of the upside down pot, the whole pot and first bit of pipe get warm, keeps the frost off. Someone rang me while I was doing it and I described it; "My God Olly, don't blow yourself up! It sounds like a Molotov cocktail."
If she knew how easily that tiny flame blows out.
Got out a large net curtain and put it over all my pots. They are on the hard standing at the North end of the larger greenhouse, and are usually alright there, but belt and braces.
Stood all the bags of leaves I had picked up along the North side of the small greenhouse and stood a sheet of glass at the end they didn't reach.
I have been potting up onion seedlings, separated out 24 from one pot of seedlings and got them in individual pots of something nice. Gave them a water and put them in the small greenhouse, at least overnight, maybe more. The ones I did earlier have been outside for days and seem to survive frost okay, but I'm toying with the idea of getting a few earlier by keeping them in and in pots. I already have a couple of buckets with sets in, and they are well ahead of the sets outside.
With only two of us it is easy to swamp the market, I try and spread things.

 

[Gardening purrple15]

I found my plant seeds after a while.

 

[Sean Regan]

I finished wiring the two acer palmatums. I had plenty of net. I used it to cover my koi pool to protect it from falling leaves in the autumn.

This variety of acer naturally cascades, but the diameter will always increase each year. It's now contained within the brick circle. It's wide mesh net so in April, I will be able to pull through any branches that have new leaves beginning to sprout.

I'm in two minds what to do with the area under this one. Ideally, I could remove the brick circle, it's in a ring concrete and make a wider circle. But there's not enough bricks and I can't get any more. So I'd have to use different ones as it's likely I could find a match. I could just re-turf it (again !). The tree next door has gone so it will get more sun.

I cleared a lot more leaves, mostly rodo's. The remaining few I blew to the back of the borders to rot down.
I then got into the pergola posts.

The plywood caps were starting to rot, so I removed them and gave both a good dose of Cuprinol and let it soak in whilst I did other jobs. i made new caps out of squares of plastic cut from the bottom of a couple of old 1ltr ice cream cartons. I glued them to the tops and then siliconed round the edges.

When I went to the village DIY hardware store yesterday for some wire for the acers, I spotted this 3mtr rug.

It was ideal to replace the old dark brown one we had in front of the French windows.
I like to keep one there, for the occasions we have visitors and they want to see the garden. I never go in and out that way, I always use the front door and go through the door in the fence between the house and the garage.

It's not a bad match for the rug in front of the sofa. It was only £15.

I've still to prune the little acer in the bed next to the back fence.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I haven't even been out there and it's getting dark; and going to London to see the older daughter tomorrow, never mind, it will take care of itself nicely this time of year, but I will mulch the garlic when I get a chance.
Sean, that first acer looks as though it has a hairnet on, give it a fag and a pair of folded arms under it ...
I have taken to using engineering bricks for stuff like those circles, they have had them on offer and they look nice and crisp, are a good colour, and don't show wear or split with frost. Where they border a bed I have put them longways on and planted stuff in the holes.