What are we doing in the garden 2025

Place yer bets please. Will @CostasK be able to wait till spring before getting more plants?

 

Not if he's anything like us.
At Capel Manor yesterday, one of the garden staff told me they had half price plants out front by reception (I get in the staff entrance at the back). I deliberately didn't go out to look, can't resist a bargain.

Today in the garden at home, more cutting back, & I trimmed a chunk or two off the Rowan. Also gave the front grass what I hope will be it's last trim of the year.

 

Now you see it...




Now you dont!



OK, my part of the task was to instruct the guys and pay- The Child salvaged all good pieces of wood of manageable size for later use. The rest, including the very sturdy concreted in uprights, are gone

I now have a lovely job to clear out the stones, bricks and whatever I find, and prepare the soil for planting.

 

Well I've been doing the neighbour conifer hedge today that backs onto my garden , I were supposed to be doing something else but with the amount of ice on the road didn't want to risk it so set into this instead .
Its quite a large hedge approx 13ft tall on this side and 15ft on my side, 8ft approx width taking the strain on the shoulders/ back.
Part way through

Not been cut for 2 years so had a bit on it, can see top of my GH - pergola .

Top done one end to the other
All done clean up then a brew

 

Take it steady, @shiney, you have a greenhouse build to supervise shortly.

You have done a grand job there, @Perki.

 

Just think how much more garden you'd have if the hedge was replaced by a fence @Perki !

 

Weather threw a googly last night. Was due to be down to 1 degree from 9 pm till midnight, then rising to 7 degrees by 6 am. I erred on the side of caution with my pelargoniums and popped them in the garage, but left everything else uncovered. However, I see my Impatiens, which still had some very perky stems despite two nights of light frost this week, have completely flopped, so it might have got below zero early in the night.

Time will tell. If the osteospermums have suffered, the damage will take a couple of days to show.

 

Expertly done @Perki .

 

Wet weather gear on and out into the garden to plant out some asparagus crowns. We had a great bed for some years and then all went apart from one volunteer plant that started growing in another area about 3 years ago and it is doing really well. The globe artichokes this year have done badly and we ended up with a few seedlings that still came to a standstill. So decided to move them into the polytunnel to give them a chance.

 

I've done very little gardening recently. It's been wet then cold and frosty. I filled the garden bin 2 weeks ago just after it had been emptied, the compost bins were nearly full and I filled 10 compost bags with leaves so there was no room to put anything anyway. The bin was emptied yesterday.

The big old buddleia that had been pruned to be a tree instead of a shrub by a previous owner fell over onto the lower lawn in Storm Claudia. It's still lying there. When the weather is a bit more clement we'll cut it up and squeeze as much as we can into the garden bin.

I don't bother clearing a lot up in the garden anyway until I want to mulch it and clear it so that the daffodils look pretty. I have until January anyway as we hope to go back to France then. My handyman in France has trimmed the big Leylandii hedge, not as tall and thick as @Perki 's, and he has raked up the leaves.

 

No gardening for me as we had a heavy frost last night and are expecting heavy rain tho we're just getting a few drops at the mo.

We don't collect leaves unless they get sucked up when OH is mowing. Apart from the established trees in the boundary hedge, a couple of old ash trees and some younger ones plus a couple of walnuts all my trees are new and young and not dumping huge piles. Those that fall can stay and enrich the soil below.

By Tuesday, my next free day for gardening, it should be a bit warmer and dry so I'll get in the last of the bulbs and then book OH to help me prune whole branches off some ash and mimosa trees that are hanging over the end of our veg plot and keeping off both sun and rain.

 

Rain all day, haven't even unlocked the back door. Did watch a video on pruning Elder, if that counts. I only have a young self sown one and was wondering what to do with it. Have decided to cut it back hard, but not quite yet. If it behaves like the one I saw in the video, it will then put on lots of long straight growth which can be harvested each year like hazel. If it doesn't, I haven't lost anything.

 

Hi,

WOW @Perki it looks like you've been using a line and spirit level; very impressive indeed; well done and you deserve a lump of cake with a brew.

Having had dinner and done the dishes I now had a choice at 1pm; violin practice or garden; first though I checked the weather forecast; it was already quite dark and it stated rain at 2pm so garden it was and I know I've been out there for over two hours on hands and knees giving the couch grass a hard time. I feel absolutely frozen and as usual I'm better at weather forecasting than the met office; it's now 15:37 so where's the rain you clowns.

I'm determined to sort the middle meadow out before Christmas then any remaining couch grass will have a chance to make an appearance for next spring when I'll attack it again; I won't be satisfied until I win.

Around 3 o'clock it suddenly became much colder and the light breeze started to pick up; I think I should be awarded a medal for stupidity but if I wait for better weather lots more jobs spring up needing doing first; I don't want remaining couch grass to enjoy the soft soil I'm creating spreading into it.

Kind regards, Col.