What are we doing in the garden 2025

Suprisingly difficult to get native bulbs, especially ones confirmed from our part of the country.
I cant find spring and autumn squill anywhere. I think I saw some wood sorrel and anenome somewhere nearby so ill have a hunt and try to get a tiny bit.

 

@NigelJ The Magic Flute was the first live opera I went to and it was magic. So many talented people.

 

No real rain today but garden is too soggy to do much. I carried two watering cans full of collected rainwater down the slope to the bottom where I installed one of those big collapsible water butts in the spring. This top-up was enough to reach the tap outlet height for the first time since I've had it - a point brought home when I got wet feet because the tap had been open all this time!

Then I noticed an unexpected pop of bright green from the single blackened hollyhock stem - the seeds were growing! Not just a few either; on closer inspection pretty much every seed in every pod had a sprout! I tore off a few of them and stuck them in the ground to give them a better chance.

 

Although it was dry today (amazing!) the soil was too soggy to do anything. So I repotted my purchases and where possible divided them. They'll mostly stay cwtshed in the greenhouse till spring.
And I hate mice! I had some newly pricked out seedlings nipped off and left - not even eaten. I mostly try to cover them in closed propagators, but I sometimes forget. I used to trap them, but it seemed never ending.

 

Thankfully, it didn't rain today so I was able to do a few gardening jobs, trying to sweep very soggy leaves off the terrace which had blocked the drainage pipe the builder had installed at the base of the parapet wall. We had quite a little puddle on the paving which is not ideal.
Pruned a potted clematis by half which is fastened to a drainpipe and looks ugly in the winter.
Cloched a few bulbs showing through already, didn't want the squirrels to find them. Potted up a clump of violas from the veg bed - I didn't remember planting them there and generally faffed around for nearly two hours.

 

@On the Levels

I've been lucky and seen some really good performances of a number of operas with superb soloists fantastically conducted and directed.
When I lived in Essex I was able to go to the ENO after work and be in my bed by midnight.

 

Patched up the patchwork greenhouse to be ready for the winter.

Last year when we had just moved in I hastily covered the biggest holes with plastic film and duckt tape (can't go wrong with that ) but this summer we have been replacing most of the broken glass with proper acrylic panes.

It's still very much of an eyeful, but better than last winter.

Potted up the last cheapy Primroses for the front of the house so that passerbys will enjoy the rather erm... cheerful... colours. The whites and pinks are in the back for me.

Tidied up a bit and discovered something unexpected in one of my buckets. Now, I like buckets very much and have about 15, most of them half filled with something important like bad subsoil on its way to bin, good shop bought compost, precious aquatic compost, manure, good topsoil or something else. Plus a lot of rainwater.

This tidying up round gave me four Hyacinth bulbs happily sprouting and sporting feeble flowers.



These are the remnants of last year's JParkers clearance pack of five prepared bulbs of mixed colours that were thankfully all pink-ish.

I'll give them a chance

 

I've tried, but find that opera hurts my ears and in a 2 hour performance there's one good tune. I prefer a male voice choir with plenty of bass and baritones. I also find all that training takes the soul out of the voices. Each to their own.

Anyway, gardening today - cold snap coming so today OH helped me cart the 3 big citrus pots down to the polytunnel where I re-potted them with fresh compost and citrus feed and they'll spend the winter safe from heavy frosts and winds. The Meyer lemon and Limquat are full of fruits and blossom but the yuzu got a good talking to, for encouragement. The chook helped.

Tomorrow is now set to be very wet (fingers crossed cos they keep changing their minds) but dry next week so I'll get the last of the bulbs in, plant some grasses and move some irises. Not a fan of grasses but friends here insist they are good so we'll see.

 

Two hours you're getting off lightly more like 3 to 4 hours.
More seriously I am a fan of all forms of choral music; but especially the Renaissance choral works of Taverner, Tallis Byrd and Palestrina, the complex layering of the voices is really special.

 

I've been to live, outdoor performances of La Traviata, Carmen and Magic Flute and assumed they lasted so long because there was an interval and I was cold and bored @NigelJ In the late 80s I also borrowed records from the library - Nabuko, Aida and others - to listen and learn and they were not 3 to 4 hours but I didn't even last that long.

 

Busy day today with the incoming freeze next week .

Lifting dahlia's - salvia - ensete - colocasia and anything else I want to try and keep . Unfortunately I think two of my dahlias have leaf gall so they'll have to go , one of them is quite a old tuber which is disappointing but I am not 100% sure on that one so may hang onto it and keep an eye on it . I've been using the compressor to clean the dahlia tubers off it worked quite well , probably not as well as the hose but a lot less messy and they aren't soaked , last year I used the hose and packed them away far to quick and lost a lot this time I've got them in the hallway drying out .

I am going to try and keep quite a lot of plants keep going over winter see how I fare , some haven't even flowered yet I am looking at you salvia purple velvet and a Abutilon .

No work on the garden wall has commenced today or tomorrow sadly, it were still raining this morning and with the coming freeze the mortar possible won't set / weaken if it freezes . Tried knocking some quoin stones out but they won't for moving so had to dismantle a bit more of the wall than intending but it will help in the load run joining new and old together. I did get the concrete footing in last Saturday. looks at bit of a mess at the moment

 

Most operas contain 10-15 mins of unadulterated loveliness, dispersed within a lot of filler you might not choose to sit through in an ideal world. That's why radio stations like Classic FM took off. They just play the best bits.

Yesterday the forecast was for endless drizzle, but it was actually dry and sunny all day and I was out there with bare arms. What a treat in mid November. Moved all my pots around, deciding which I would definitely try to keep unfrosted and which would have to manage with just a fleece blanket and crossed fingers. I've made sure at least one of each type is "safe", eg I have 4 identical purple osteospermums, so worst case scenario I will have a survivor come April.

Doesn't April sound a long way away? It'll be here in a flash though.

 

To my ears, opera is just people shouting and screaming at each other with the occasional whisper. It's not for me.

 

Are you confusing Opera with "Yesterday in Parliament" by any chance.
However in the garden; initially moving things from A to B after that probably weeding.

 

They are very similar @NigelJ