What have you done today in the Garden?

Glad you liked the drought tolerant vid Daniel. I saw that and thought of your experiment with in your new garden. The video included a lot of drought tolerant plants I have in my garden. I know they will work in any dry environment once established.

 

Weeding the borders, I've done 3 so far ran out of space in the bin. It's going to rain again tomorrow so that's it for a while.

 

Both gardens got blitzed today as it was dry.
Mowing, weeding, leaf collection.
These begonias are doing well. They are half the delivery I bought on-line as plug plants early in the year. The other half were received dried out so I was given a voucher by the supplier that covered the cost of the order.










One of the four heathers in the troughs on the patio had died. So I noticed these heathers in Homebase. Three for £8. So I thought they'd do for now. The other two won't flower for a couple of months. The third one is on the patio steps now.





The house next door was bought by a Chinese doctor over a year ago. They've left it empty since then. But three Chinese workmen turned up today, to blitz the interior of the house. They've filled a skip with old fitted wardrobes and kitchen units.
They also tackled the gardens, which were completely overgrown.
They obviously didn't want the big tree at the bottom of the back garden.

You can just see a bit of it, to the left of our fence.



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Now if you're going to take down a tree you need to have the right protective gear and a chain saw.






But not if you're a young Chinese youth.
Just jeans, a sweatshirt, trainers and a small hand saw.









Getting through the trunk took them over an hour.




They've filled the garden with the branches they've cut down. They'll need another skip.

 

DHR beautiful garden clipped, trimmed and cleaned to the inch . Typical of your love and care for your garden.

Looks a lot better with the tree gone. Nothing wrong with an open airy space to let the sunshine shine thru your garden space. I bet your glad it’s gone will allow more sun for your back garden.

Enjoyed the story of the whats happenings next door. Sometimes a tree has to go other times a thinning of limbs can be the solution. In this case removing an oversized tree for the space will make all the neighbors happier.

 

DHR , lovely garden of yours, well maintained.

We had a big maple tree on the side of our house and it had to be cut down. Difficult to maintain and it was effecting the footings of our conservatory.
Today did some more weeding.

 

Harvested the sweet potatoes from the bags, they're now curing on the rack in the garage. They weren't big because I grew them in bags plus I got them in late. But I'm happy I got any at all. I've never tried growing sweet potatoes before.

 

Well......you learn something new every day don't you!!!

Thanks @Willowisp0801 for your informative post above, I never realised Sweet Potatoes required curing. I've had a good Googling session and read up on all the different ways of doing so.
Good job I've never grown any ( so far ) as I would've cooked them straight away!!!

Yours look very good, well done.

 

Today I picked some green (bush) beans.



I added a few plants to the sunroom, from outdoors. There's not a lot of extra space for more.



I started pruning German iris leaves. About 1/3 are done. Also pulled tiny weeds, before they can establish.

 

Fab harvest @Daniel W . I bet your sunroom is a great place to sit out in during the Autumn/ Winter seasons.
We have a front porch area that is way too hot to sit in during the sumner months but ..IF...we get some Winter sun then it makes an ideal place to sit and enjoy it during the colder months.
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Thanks Oreti, This is the first time I've grown them. I had to look up a lot as well.

I wish I had a sunroom. The most I have is a large front window.

 

Okay, I think it is @Daniel calls something 'schlumbergers" it is several pages back. ??? I do not know which plants in his pictures they are. I did appreciate the labels on some of the pictures. It helps. Sometimes the pictures are difficult to see.

The weather people here say the remains of Hurricane Kirk are headed to Europe, so you over there might get some heavy rains and winds, but not a hurricane.

People in our southeast are still in a bad way after Hurricane Helene, especially in the Carolinas [it might take years for them to recover], and now there is a cat 5 Hurricane Milton on the way to Florida, probably the Tampa area.

My oldest son, the trucker, was in the Georgia area and up to Ohio, and other midwest states when that was happening. Thankfully he was not on the roads that have collapsed and washed away, he was a tad bit west of those things. He is home for a few days before he has to go back out again. You can see many videos of the damages on you tube, probably most have seen some of them.

I am still picking up walnuts and more walnuts.... And I was cutting seed heads for my zinnias and marigolds. Some I toss on the ground, and most I put in my paper bag for later.

@Willowisp0801 , my PINK four o'clocks are blooming now, so when I get some seeds I will mail some seeds to you.

I was in the grocery store the other day, and they had potted herbs for sale, so I got 2 pots of rosemary. I have other rosemary plants, but I got some anyway.

I did get into that mess where my deck was and cut it down, and spread salt around. I want to get a bit more salt for there to be sure those weeds are all dead.

I also worked on another patch by my driveway where the wild honeysuckle had taken over some of my forsythia bushes and killed most of them. I was cutting those vines down with the hedge thing, and got most of them. I am going to burn that patch since the honeysuckle vines have thousands of seeds on them. I do have cuttings in water to root, so I can plant new forsythias there again later. I will pot them up for the winter (and share some), and maybe burn that patch more than once to be sure those seeds are DEAD. At least some things are getting caught up.

I am almost finished with that quilt finally. Our fundraiser is this week, and I am giving it to that.

 

I was concerned that with all the activity of the house renovation and the clearing of the garden next door, it would frighten off the hedgehogs.
Particularly because the old shed behind the garage with the door hanging off had been taken away, there was a possibility that they had a home under it. But this wasn't the case, as they turned up at their usual times. They may not even have a home next door, as they can access that garden via the drive from anywhere in the area then come through the doorway in our fence into our garden.

One has been checking out the interior of the house at the bottom of the garden, in which they hadn't shown any interest all summer. So maybe one will move in for the winter.
I'll move the camera on the patio that covers that feeder to cover the house under the azaleas to the side of the patio, to see if any interest is shown in it.

 

I like having it. It heats up too much on sunny days, even with the windows open and a fan, it reaches 100 when its 75 outside on sunny day. If the house is chilly, we open the doors to the sunroom to help warm the house on those days. It's still one of my favorite spots, especially if it's raining

Those are holiday cactus, also called Christmas cactus. I have a minor collection of them, about ten plants. Photos from last year -







They brighten up a winter's day.

 

@Daniel W I have Christmas cactus also... I like them. Yours are beautiful.

I was helping with our church fundraiser today (and through Thursday)... and have not gotten to my garden. I did buy some caraway seed today. I might try growing it. Has anyone grown caraway here? I want to make some homemade pumpernickel bread soon.

That celery seed I bought at the same place, they sell bulk seasonings and herbs, is growing great.

 

I have largely abandoned my veg patch for the last month or so, because I am busy with other stuff. I harves t still every few days. Look at today’s haul. The purple tomatoes are particularly delicious.


The piles of green stuff, the biggest one is basil the second largest is rocket and the other one is parsley. The clipper lighter gives the scale.