What have you done today in the Garden?

Goodness gracious me!
What colour are they, orangish? What do they look like then?

 

I'll see if I can catch a photo of the bugger..

 

I probably have related this Groundhog story, but you can't stop me.
We live trapped a family of Groundhogs, one at a time, last Summer. WE transported them to an area with lots of space and wild plants. when the final catch was made, it was an older Grandfather (I think).
He was very disgruntled and tried to chew through the cage. While
my mate fetched a tool, I spoke gently to the poor creature, telling him that we were taking him to join his family and that he would be very happy there. Believe it or not, he settled right down, looking at me.
When we released him, he seemed content and ambled off, searching
for his family.

 

Toni, you're probably right.
Someone in the family suggested that I'm "The Groundhog Whisperer!"

 

GP: I wish you'd come here and Groundhog Whisper this guy's pudgy tuchus OUTTA HERE!!

 

Cayuga, maybe only local groundhogs understand me.
I have never visited the New England states and I'm assuming your New England is the USA. The leaves should be creating beautiful scenery about now.

 

Very little to do in our garden at this time of the year. But what there was, took me over two hours on Sunday!

Mowed the lawn.




Pruned off a few yellow leaves on the rhodos.



Pruned a lot of the tall branches off next door's trees with my telescopic pruner, where they hang over our garden. Can't reach the highest ones, even standing on the roof of the shed. Didn't stand on the tea-house roof as my wife was watching through the French .
But a neighbour has a scaffold I can borrow. So I may tackle them later in the year. Almost filled the green bin with what I pruned off even after chopping them up.




Tidied up these azaleas at the side of the patio, removing a few branches that had bolted. I like to keep them fairly level as they grow taller. I'll take the solar lamps in later in the week, remove the batteries, spray the works with contact cleaner and spray the chrome tubes with WD40. I store them in polystyrene boxes in the winter.



Gave this little acer its final trim of the year, our sorbus has a lot of berries, which when they fall will need a lot of vacuuming up!




I don't know if it counts, but we've had new thermal lined curtains made for the three bedrooms, the lounge and this, the front room, which left me with the old ones, for which I had a project already planned.



Some of them (they have a thermal backing), I used to cover the bubble-wrap on the back of the three tea-house doors to increase the insulation.



I also made covers out of them for my two jukeboxes.
I usually just cover them with dust sheets in the winter. I have 60w lamps and dehumidifiers in the bottom of the cabinets, to keep them a bit warm and ward off any damp, (they don't like either). The covers will help to keep the heat in.

Took a load more down to the tip, but kept a long pair, in case I need them to cover something else.

 

That was a bit of work, Riley.

We cleaned 24 meters of the canal bordering our allotment. It was brutal--backbreaking, muddy, wet and smelly. It is a law and must happen every year.
The last of the apples were harvested, Apple-sauce to be made tomorrow after making the last Food Bank run.

 

Riley, I wonder what you must have done when you were younger?
Your day's labor makes me think I have nothing to do. Do you ever stop to breathe? Everything looks SO tidy. If a leaf falls off a tree, I'm guessing you're there immediately to pick it up and dispose of it. Your yard/garden shows the result of all your labor.

 

Sjoerd, does each lottie owner do their own bit of cleaning the canal? I assume you have only your own space to clear. It's only the right thing that those who have use of the allotments keep the canals clear.
Homemade applesauce sure sounds good. Makes me want to go to Apple Charlie's and pick some for applesauce.

 

Hiya Growing,
Yes the folks who have allotments along the canal are obligated to keep the banks and sides clean on their side of the canal. Other people whose allotments not bordered by a canal of course do not have to do any cleaning.
Keeping the canals clean and flowing in a national obligation.

If you do make applesauce, post some piccies please. Good luck.

 

I've been early retired for 22 years now.
In my working life I managed a succession of large superstores for a well known UK chain, in the days when general managers were "king," wore sharp suits and highly polished shoes.
You never wore a badge, both staff and customers knew who you were, just by your physical presence. Your word was law, you'd not take any nonsense from head office jobsworths. You hired your own staff, didn't let HR get involved. In fact I trained my superrvisors and managers to hire their own staff, after I'd weeded out the applications. They chose people with whom they thought they could work. So I never got "This person you hired is useless." It was their choice and pride would make them resolve any problems.

Did a lot of the buying.
These days, managers are "jobsworths," they have to wear badges so the customers know they aren't the trolley boy as all staff are dressed the same. Their function is to fully toe the corporate line.No opportunity to show any initiative and they are paid relatively peanuts. Some chains don't have actual residential managers, a succession of different staff visit a number of stores just to make sure there are no problems, so there's little team spirit.

My days were spent mostly on my feet talkiing to senior staff about a variety of things, listening to their ideas on increasing sales. This intermediate level of store management and supervision is long gone. The ordering is done centrally. It often seems with no store involvement the policy is to sell out of key lines at 4.00pm but be open until 9.00pm. I also spent a lot of time talking to customers. My philosophy was that despite the fact that nine out of ten times, you were aware of what staff or customers told you, if you didn't listen to them, you wouldn't be told the tenth, of which you were totally unaware and were glad to know.

My key functions I considered to be occasionally smoothing down the odd feather, which my policies implemented by the departmental managers and supervisors had caused, and doing the budgets. This needed careful consideration, the main objective was to achieve your maximum bonus, which I usually did.

 

I took the solar lights in. The weather in the foreseeble future won't provide them with much solar energy.

We've had them for several years. We've about a dozen of them, but only use eight.
They are of a cheap variety, not designed to last. Like these.



The problem is that rain falling on the globe can run down the sides and can get into the works. That won't necessarily stop them working but it will rust the contacts. So with ours I put a band of black insulationg tape around them covering the edge of the metal body and attached to the glass, to keep any water out. It doesn't notice. Around now I take them into the garage, take the batteries out, spray the contacts with switch cleaner and pack them away in the discarded insulated polystyrene boxes with the thick sides, that my wife's on-line meat orders arrive.
The steel tubes I spray with 3 in 1 oil and put them in a separate box. I bring the batteries indoors, charge them up then put them away ready for next year (when they'll need another charge).

I sorted out the pot movers.




We've sixteen patio roses in ceramic pots that sit on plastic pot movers on the two patios.






These are ideal in the summer as any water that passes through the pots is retained in the pot mover and helps to keep the pot a bit cooler and retains any necessary moisture during hot days.

Not so good in the winter as the water would just sit there. So I drilled a hole in the centre of each mover and put a dab of silicone over it for the summer. Today I pulled all the silicone bungs out, so the movers will drain any surplus water onto the patios.

 

Riley, it's obvious that you ran a tight ship during your working years.
All one needs do is look at your gardens/yard and read your directions
on winterizing objects, etc. Do the roses stay in the pots all winter?
Your way of operating a business makes far more sense than today's.