What have you done today in the Garden?

Nothing today, too wet for golf let alone gardening.
But I did get a few "gardening related" jobs done.

We'd ordered two David Austin bare root roses that were scheduled for delivery today.
Not that we needed more roses (don't ask why) as we've fifteen in green Apta ceramic pots on the patio and two in old stone ones.
(I like these Apta pots, as they come with a ten year guarantee).

Cambridge – Apta – Inspiring Britain's Gardeners
apta.co.uk

"The plan," was to remove two of the older roses from the ceramic pots and put them in plastic green pots with the four others along the side of our drive. (l like order). Releasing the pots for the new roses.
So not having any spare green pots, today I had to visit three different garden centres before I found some!
I had to "hack mt way through a jungle of Christmas tat," to find these.

I'll be going through the photos I took in the summer of the roses, looking for, "two volunteers."
If it stays dry I'll do the swop tomorrow as the roses arrived as expected.

I also bought some more long green plastric plant stakes and some green wire.
I put a wire fence around the azaleas (and 'arry the 'edgehogs 'ouse) to the side of the patio, to prevent cats hiding in there and pouncing out on the birds or the squirrel on the patio. You can just see the fence bottom right in the photo.




My wife told me she'd seen one in there yesterday, only noticing it when it attempted to jump out on a blackbird on the patio. Fortunately, it only succeeded in slamming itself into the wire fence. I'll use the stakes to string some wire across a bit above the fence I've noticed where the azaleas aren't thick enough to prevent a cat from jumping over the fence to get in there.

The suspect bit is to the left of the pergola post.


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For the last couple of weeks it's been mostly about leaf collection every few days. A lot from the acer in the front garden which has gone from this in June





To this today.




It'll be getting its annual prune later where I take a foot off all over to stop it getting too big for this small garden.

 

Nothing today it's raining heavily and going to be all day.

 

Yesterday we popped out to the lottie for a looksy. We removed the last of the parsnips,


...we then cleaned the bed, min-tilled the soil and covered it with a thick layer of plant debris. That is the third of four quadrants done ‘n dusted. The remaining surfaces have Brussels sprouts and leeks in them, so that will have to wait. Never-mind, the greenhouse is only half done, so there is plenty to keep us busy for the coming weeks and months in-between the rain and sleet.

We also dug our some rotted path border and replaced that with a length of decking plank. Very nice.

We picked more peppers and Brussels sprouts, fished some reed roots out of the canal. Cleaned the rain barrel, and stored it in the greenhouse, so that it wouldn’t freeze and crack.

The peppers are piling-up in the pantry. These garlands are drying nicely.


I think that we will have enough of those peppers to flake and last a number of years. The outside ones are still producing in spite of the cooler temps. The ones in the greenhouse are almost finished and I will try and hold them over just for the practice.

We cut down more tall spent plant stems from the flower garden. All-in-all, enough to keep the muscles stiff.

Now then, we shall have to bring the processed parsnip peels to the deer in the park tomorrow.

 

Your pantry is looking good Sjoerd. I've got my jars of jam in different cubourds a few in each.

 

I did all I wanted to do as the rain held off.
The hardest job was wiring up around the azaleas to stop the cats getting in so they can pounce on the birds, without making the wire obtrusive, "the easier option would have been to buy an airgun."

 

Nothing today it's raining heavily

 

Picked the last of the tomatoes off, the blight was creeping in so pulled all the plants.

 

It's so very windy that it's impossible to do anything in the garden, but tomorrow should be ok.

 

I'm working with gravel and heavy paving stones. Each stone weighs 47 kilos give or take a little. The gravel is shoveled from our garden paths. It's hard work and I've been at it on and off for two weeks depending on the weather. I'm nearly done now and the weather's gonna be nice tomorrow.

 

Dug the last of the potatoes, black keeled slugs had eaten half of them and the other half had split when they got a sudden watering

Not much to show for half a tunnels worth

 

good grief Droopy... be careful of your back. those are heavy!

 

I pulled my back a bit yesterday so going to take it easy for a few days. It's a shame because it's dry out there but a bit cold.

 

Ahhh— That’s a shame, Zig.
Which reds are they? Roseval?

Droopy, it looks like you are from good Viking stock. Be careful though just to be sure.

 

Can't remember now, they got left in the ground last year, should have pulled them out but they came up thru the strawberries (which the slugs also ate)

 

I don't lift them. I wiggle them onto my whatchamacallit-thingy (that I don't know the name of in English but it has two wheels and a platform) and then I wiggle them off and in place. I have to tip them down and maybe back up if the amount of gravel underneath was wrong, but I am super careful and lift with my legs.

Yes @Sjoerd I am!

So sorry for your potatoes and strawberries @Zigs . Better luck next year.

Today I finished with the big paving stones and the gravel and I actually got to tidy up a bit in the garden. I will tidy up more tomorrow, and after that we're in for at least a week of rain.