What have you done today in the Garden?

Just topped up all the pots with compost. Pruned the Acer Taylor.

Sorted out the insulation in the tea house. Put some over the side windows, the doors already have bubble-wrap on the backs. Put some metalised bublewrap over the Expelair fan housing and checked the lamps in the jukeboxes. They are covered in metalised bubble-wrap and quadruple folded dust sheets. Easy enough to remove when I want to play them.
I keep 60w bulbs in inspection lamps burning 24/7 in the bottom of each of them as well as a box of rechargeable dehumidifying crystals. One each in the boxes, two on charge. It keeps the damp away. I check the lamps every day, in case one blows, only takes a minute.

 

I thinned the leaf lettuces and have a nice bag of baby leaves for a salad. We put up the supports for the sugar peas but ran out of garden twine, so a trip into the local hardware store tomorrow will be needed.
Not exactly in the garden, but I watered the potted herb plants in the barn and cut some fresh oregano to make onion/oregano bread tomorrow.

 

Quite a lot today as it was quite dry and reasonably warm with some sun.
The wisteria leaves have "turned."



So as I always do at this time of the year, I've pruned them off. They'll get a proper prune between Christmas and New Year.



The little acer is still hanging on.



There's still the ones on the pergola on the side of the garage and the two on the pergola on the back of the house to be done, but that will have to wait until next week as the green bin is full.

Last of the colour in the garden.



A couple of fuchsias hiding behind the rhodos






I've since got the blower out and moved all the fallen leaves to the back of the border to rot down. As it slopes towards the front, any released nutrients will work their way down to the plants at the front.

I find my Flymo with its big "pick-up fan" is ideal for removing fallen leaves off the lawn. There's a lot more to come from next door's trees.

 

We harvested the last of the leeks and some parsnips for supper. I also cut down quite a few perennial flower stems to lay upon the veggie beds. Before we knew it it was getting dark.

 

Not a lot when it looks like this.

 

Good grief mate--and we live so close to you. I wonder if we can expect that here in a day or two. Dear me.

 

I said I wasn't doing any more but I tackled the wisteria on the pergola on the side of the gaarge. Managed to force the leaves in the bin.

There's more to do here. As one of the two varieties of wisteria comes from the one branch that survived after the rest died and two other bits that layered themselves, I've let it grow rampant this year, as it's first attempt two years ago and although the branches were very long, they died off.

If it's dry tomorrow I'm going to try to get it into some sort of balance as now the leaves have gone, I can see what I'm doing. Quite a bit of cutting back of very long stringers is necessary.

 

This is what I hope to tackle this afternoon if it stays dry, now I've stripped the dying leaves and can see "what's what."

Far too many long side shoots to be supported by several thin stems.

I'll prune a lot of them back and try to get a more balanced distribution of branches. As they are all thin and whippy, it won't be difficult.







The leaves on the pergola on the back of the house can wait until next week.

 

All done

It doesn't look much different, but I've taken yards of unwanted side shoots off.







I've also sorted out some of the main stems where they were crossing and re-tied them to the pergola.

I also gave the ends of the cross beams a coat of clear Cuprinol. I may give them another coat of paint a bit later in the month.

The weather's been like this all day. Clear blue skies and quite warm.

 

Nothing today as it's chucking it down. But I got a lot done yesterday.



Pruned off the foliage of the last wisterias. There's actually three. The main one which grows up the right-hand post, a branch from the one on the garage pergola that travels around 25ft from the one on the garage pergola (you can see the branch over the door in the fence in the second photo) and a younger pink one that is in the small bed next to the kitchen window.

These "hang on" the longest as they get full sun and are sheltered being on the back of the house. They also benefit from the hot gas from the combi in the corner of the kitchen. The vent is immediately under the pergola.

So we went from this.





To this.







This isn't the final prune, they'll get another between Christmas and the New Year. I did thin out the one on the right, above the top of the post, to stop it "bunching" there and put more energy into itself further along the pergola.

I was able to inspect the main beams and cross beams of the pergola for any rot once I'd removed the leaves and found none. But it'll get a coat of paint if we ever have a dry couple of days in the next few weeks.

My Chinese pot movers from e-Bay have arrived. Not over-keen on the colour, but it was all that were available. The alternatives were wire ones. I've a couple of these but they tend to bend with the weight of a 16" ceramic pot and its contents.

So I'll use the green ones on the new flagged area and these on the main patio, for the new David Austin roses. They are quite wide and have larger better four castors, rather than those on the green one which are smaller and have only three. I need to drill a small hole through the middle of each so any water that passes through the pots can drain away. At £4.62 each with free postage, they represent great value for money.

 

D Riley, get a can of spraypaint and spray them. there are several newer ones available that paint plastic and so a good job of it. I picked up two "new" white plastic lawn chairs off the curb(trash day) they look fabulous so far. I left them to just sit in the greenhouse and not be exposed to the weather for the Winter. that were stained from sitting in water and a puddle of rainwater on one seat and repainted them with a can of spraypaint.

 

Doghouse I take it that "chucking it down" means raining? In your neck of the woods?

I like what you are doing with your wisteria. I have never grown it and thus know zip about it's care. I bet it is gorgeous in bloom

 

Thanks for the kind words.

There you go.







Hee's a tour, I do one in May each year.