What have you done today in the Garden?

Too true Pac, I had just finished leaf clearance in our garden but now have seemingly every leaf from the lane and surrounding woodland and farm fields piling up here. We've had 3 trees uprooted in the garden that we quickly dug back in and re-staked. They are pretty shallow rooted and we often have such issues with them...but thankfully they're true survivors.

No rain today so will I will go out on a damage reckie soon.

 

Thanks @Sjoerd ...I will. Strong winds are the only weather element that I won't attempt any gardening in.

Too many surrounding trees. A couple of years ago during a gale I decided to busy myself with greenhouse tasks , there was a sudden super gust and 6 panes of glass blew in on me.....sooooooo scary. Learnt my lesson now. I don't mind going for walks on stormy days as we can pick out routes...with small or no trees.

 

Although it's quite cold, it's dry. I fed the birds, then got into this
Amber clematis and jasmine. The latter never stops growing through the summer, it'd be several feet above the height of the fence if I didn't prune it.




There were a lot of fallen leaves, in the bed of cyclamen, I had to get out.




There were a lot of fallen thin branches under next door's silver birches, that I'd pruned off last week and the wind brought down.

 

I did more wisteria and akebia pruning today. Burrrrr— wet and windy work.

 

I finished pruning the Jonagold apple tree. It was sold twenty years ago as a dwarf. It easily grows twenty feet tall. Probably more, if I let it.

Anyway, it's my usual apple tree style, too high for deer, but low enough for me. I did have to use a step ladder, but only two steps. I can "almost" reach the highest branches with my extended arm, now.



I need to remove the pruned branches, but rain began to pour. Another day.

While walking Rufus, I saw a fairy ring. Good luck, I think. Gnomes have their summits within the rings, and sometimes, dance.



I also hauled four 5-gallon buckets of mole hill soil from the front yard. Quite heavy, I have to put the bucket into the wagon and haul one at a time. There's quite a bit - these moles are trying to build the Tower of Babel. I imagine that deep below, there is a vast subterranean network of tunnels. There were more in the chicken yard, and I hauled two buckets of those.

The soil went to a low former-garden area that I'm recovering to make lawn. I thought it was OK, but noticed a sunken area. I spread the soil to fill in the sunken area. Now it's level.

Then finished hauling chicken litter cleanup that's been sitting there, calling my name for a month. I spread that in a raised bed where there will be onions next year. Now the area where it was waiting, is cleaned up. Another checkmark on the list.

 

Daniel you got a lot done today. Apple trees look great along with all your efforts to maintain the soil levels and I had a little chuckle hearing your tiding up the mole hills . Phew I’m tired from just reading what you did today.


I did a pasture check and no moles, gophers, ground squirrels or deer. It’s a bit icy out today so just collected more clippings for decorating the tree , wreaths and swags.

 

Nothing today I'm doing other things.

 

Did a bit more storm upheaval clearing up.....still more to do tomorrow. Decided to take the afternoon off and headed into town for lunch.It was well earned as we did work hard this morning....honestly.

 

I pruned two more apple trees. One is a Jonathan, with a graft of Airlie Red Flesh. The other is Gravenstein, with the same graft for pollination. Both are treasured, and delicious, heritage varieties.





My parents had a Jonathan apple tree in their yard when I was growing up. They are my favorite flavor of apple. I think the variety is from the 1800s. As for Gravenstein, I think they go back to the 1600s, an old Danish variety.

 

Lookin great Daniel. You’ll be up to your eyeballs in apples next season.

Oreti sounds like you earned a good day out for lunch.

Not outside today was to chilly and icy in spots. The first day of winter is Dec 21.
It sure feels like winter now. A pre-winter…now…

 

Thanks Pac.

No plans to go out anywhere today...so far, so more clearing up is on the agenda.

 

Daniel— that is a very old apple sort—the 1600’s or so. I did not know it was Danish, I thought it was German. Live and learn, eh?

 

Mainly helped hubs gather up and shred all the branches that had either broken off due to the storm or had to be cut off because they were too badly damaged by it.

 

Orieti it sounds like you had a lot of unfortunate damage from the storm. It’s a lot to clean up . Garden clean up never stops even in winter season. Now it’s hopefully done for now and you can set your sights toward celebrating the Holiday season.

 

Yes thanks Pac we're almost done , hubs has still got to scoot up a ladder( which always scares me) to fix some slates back into their correct position . Then we are all good until the next storm!