What have you done today in the Garden?

I get a kick out of hearing how we all relate to plants.
I have thrown some plants in the compost heap only to discover them absolutely flourishing there and thus getting a reprieve.

 

We harvested some leeks and B. sprouts, schoffeld Nettie's garden again (the last time) and cleaned the remaining strawb bed. Checked on the bees.

 

My favourite story is about an aunt decades ago who was growing runner beans.
She used new growth trees from a local wood instead of bamboo canes to support them. The "canes" started to grow new leaves before her beans were doing anything. So she stripped the leaves off the canes and reversed them in the ground. They started growing again, so she had to buy some bamboo canes.

 

Gosh! Some very hardy tree branches!

 

Our compost heap has given us pumpkins and tomatoes. I chuck kitchen scraps into the pile--including pumpkin seeds and the inside part of tomatoes that I use as salad cups--and they took hold on the edges and bore fruit. Mother Nature and a compost pile can give lots of surprises!

 

Our five bare root roses arrived from David Austin today. So they're "in."

I put the tags on stakes at the edge of the pots, as they can easily get buried or lost.

This won't be their final position down the middle of this paved area. Some will end up nearer the French windows on the main patio.
But it's a pain to be dancing around a lot of pots on there trying to collect the wisteria leaves in the Autumn.



The acer Palmatums are going their usual "fiery red" at this time of the year. How red they'll go depends how early is the first hard frost. Although they are already shedding some of their leaves.







This little acer has done very well, big changes in leaf colour during the year.



This was it nine years ago.



When it grew to this size five years ago I shaped it.



"The alleyway of shame." The drive down the side of our house, where under-performing roses end up, between two Mayleen clematis.
The green bin lives there in front of the garage door "as a warning to them to buck their ideas up," otherwise, it's their next move.

 

First time! I put on my heavy jacket and puffy gloves, and cultivated the peas, lettuces, and broccoli. I've never before cultivated the fall garden wearing anything other than a light jacket. Where is this cold coming from?

 

Same place the heat that killed my okra came from I suspect..but ya know what? We used to count on a frost at the end of October, and have not seen one for years. We just had one. Maybe we are so far from normal we has lost sight on what normal is? I hope my usda zone does not change back though..we are 8a and were 7b.

 

Too wet to do much today.

I bought "four for three" rose/tree/shrub 50ltr compost, for our new roses. I though that might be too much, but I did use two and a bit bags, I used the rest of one bag to top up the other roses in pots.

Our new Acer Palmatum Taylor, is doing well, the leaves are just starting to turn. I'll be pruning it back a bit later in the year as it is a bit leggy.






The blueberry bush behind it produced quite a bit of fruit this year. It's still in a smaller pot inside that ceramic one. but I'll get rid of the plastic one in the winter.

Our Sorbus always delights, with small white blossom in the Spring, bright red berries in the early Autumn now fading as the leaves turn.




These are the last of them.




I've more or less finished shaping our "lollypop acer" in the front garden, though it might need just a bit more in the Spring, depending how it grows. Lots of new growth on it.

Our viburnums are starting to flower.

 

Viburnums flowering in November?!

 

Yes, they are just starting. There won't be many as I tend to prune these a lot to stop them growing too tall. There's two in this small front garden


This is today. They'll flower through to the begining of next year.





This was the end of January last year.

 

Wow. We live in such different climates.

Today I did more prep for winter: dumping out of potted annuals and veggies onto the compost heap, spreading mulch.

Let I'll be meeting a friend at the community garden to spread mulch. Do a final weeding. It's getting cold here. Really looking forward to when the bears go into hibernation so we can put up our buyers feeders!

 

Pull out all the rest of the carrots and clean off all the old veggie stumps. Stopped short of turning over the soil.

 

I got the backpack blower out and blew up leaves for the sweeper tomorrow. Still a ton of sticks from the storm so I have to make a chipper run first or it will make a mess in the sweeper brushes. I assembled a new plug aerator and tried to get the auger running but I folded. Time for a new carb or rebuild kit. I still have 12 pencil holly and some other shrubs to plant. Post hole diggers are not my fave but they do work every time you pick them up.

 

Culled all of my potted pepper plants after picking about 40 small habaneros and 10 bells. Getting down to the low 30's for temps with a frost warning. I still had Blossoms!