What are we doing in the garden 2025

Watching the rain ……

 

Get used to it.
I think we have lots to look forward to over the winter, as usual.

 

hi everyone. newbie here so l hope its ok to join in about hubby and l garden journey on our little bungalow garden. l'll post a few pictures as soon as l can work out how to post pictures . We moved here approx 10 yrs ago when my husband retired. We moved in on a very cold December day, snowing, and nk day booked a landscaper to clear the garden of over 30 pine trees that the previous owner had planted and was now matured!! We heard from neighbour it had got out of hand as he had become very ill and couldnt care for his garden. When it was all cleared we found it had a lovely blue brick patio, raised flower beds and some lovely perennial' s that had managed to survive. We had all the pine trees cut down and planted dwarf Apples, Pears etc a veg area and small raised fish pond nk to a seated area with a scented flowers, just big enough for the 2 of us. We a have a little green house and a lovely potting shed that was here when moved in. So these last 10 yrs we made our garden So this wk we picked the last of our runner beans, been really bad harvest of those this yr but had a few meals from them. Same with courgettes but only grew 2 plants in large containers on patio and only got a few veg from them. We did really well with out semi dwarf plum tree, called 'blue tit' . First year harvest from that tree as only a few yrs old...very nice fruit. We have loads of muscat grapes to harvest,( again was here when we moved in) it grows behind a water butt and in very little amount of soil , against wall. we cant get to it to water it, but it grows massive. We had to cut it back last month as couldnt get to shed door and its now gone berserk with grapes Our dwarf sweet cherry tree did really well, again only a few years old, but the cooking cherry tree only had l fruit on it :( l forgot to cover our red-current bush and birds ate the lot:( l usually make a brandy raspberry and red current liquor ,sadly not to be this Winter :( But the Damson tree again was over- loaded, so made Damson jam l make every year and tried out some damson gin My 5 rhubarb shrubs was pitiful, nothing to harvest this year. Salads did well on patio which we container grow every year. This week my husband started to empty the soil from our patio containers into the two 4ftx4ft raised bed we bought last year. we manage to grow a few tom plants in those as we try to get it filled with good compost. We do the' lasagne' method for our containers all year and now its lovely rich soil for the raised beds. We have given up buying compost as even the expensive bags were such poor quality , so we make our own, Bought a 'roly' type compost maker this year, will be emptying that nk week to see what the compost is like, again for the raised beds. We want to see what we can grow sow/grow over Autumn and Winter as never done that before, so if anyone has any advise we would be really grateful. So this is my garden layout, a ramble about my garden and how much l still want to grow, even in old age hope no one got bored reading it but l so love my little garden. Hope everyone has great weekend.

 

Checked my new strawberries then did some pruning on my Cox before pulling up one of my clumps of very tall, Burgundy red sunflowers. Huge rootballs on some of them. Collected seeds form mt sunset coloured California poppies, then on to my nursery to sort out my pots of roses and a couple of clems for planting out in the new bed next week. Weeds, snails and dead bits all gone and now I'm battered and bloodied and covered in iodine up to my elbows.

Rescued my 7 baby asparagus which are going to be planted in a bed that gets full sun and has good drainage and found some more strawberries to plant out tomorrow.

 

Looking forward to the photos @Peaceful Gardener

 

@Obelix-Vendée I have spent a lot of time in Normandie over the years , Breton and Norman cider ( home made) i found to be earthy and coarse and incredibly strong stuff and even the commercial stuff tasted similar but nowhere near as strong . i also vaguely recall drinking calvados at 8am in a Norman farmers kitchen. He had made it himself ( i later learned it was illegal but thats another story) and it was rather good but superb when he mixed it with home made cherry brandy . A great winter warmer.

 

@wiseowl Thats a nice job with a great pay off , nice to see you still have some lavender flowers.

 

We start Autumn with no rain in the next 2 weeks. Let’s hope there is more to come.
I binned my false Geranium and opened the greenhouse windows.
I also checked the fleeces for the tree fern. Could be chilly tomorrow night and I stick to Plantminded rule: wrap the tree fern when 3c and below.

 

Good luck with your garden adventures @Peaceful Gardener . Re the autumn sowing - if you tell us what you like to grow, that will help with advice. If you can add your rough location to your info, that also helps as there are huge variations in conditions and general climate around the country
I've just sown some sweet peas for example, which I don't often do in autumn. Spring is later here, so the ones I sow in spring catch up, because the autumn ones just sulk, but we had our hottest, driest spring on record this year, so I actually had some to plant out and get earlier colour. It's hit and miss because of slugs too, so most of mine are in containers.
I can't remember what I did yesterday...sigh. I know I turned one compost bin, and put some of it into the front bed, so I might be able to plant something there today. I also got some of the bulbs in that have been in pots from this year, but I'll need to wait until the containers are empted of annuals to get the rest done.
Not sure what else will happen today. The o'night frost was very light, and it's sunny, and calmer, so I might even get a chance to sit for a little while and think of something to do - maybe that bit of timber to make a little outside potting bench. No sign of Bob...I'm trying not to be paranoid, but I couldn't see him yesterday evening either and Mum is also looking panicky...

 

@Robert Bowen I think they've refined their bottled cider now. I use a bottle every time I do roast belly pork on a bed of sliced onions and apples - makes great gravy - and we serve it at patch club whenever we have a full day workshop and share apéro and dessert. Some ladies bring home-made Pineau or Trouspinette which is much stronger stuff.

I was offered a bottle of home-made Calvados for my first mulled cider. A committee colleague had found a bout 100 bottles of it in her in-laws' cellar after they died. Not for drinking on its own!

More strawberry planting for me today and checking the pear trees for any pruning needed before the autumn gales start then muck spreading on my new rose bed so I can see how much more I need OH to fetch before I start planting next week.

 

@Robert Bowen - sorry, I missed your post yesterday. We have loads of wood pigeons round here - good habitats everywhere, but they don't usually have a brood this late. It's been a bumper year for lots of birds due to our unusual spring and summer, but it's also meant we have a lot more jackdaws and magpies which makes the food situation more difficult.
I also had some feral pigeons coming in - there's a site about half a mile away [old, manky farm building] where they nest. The farmer who owns it, won't do anything about it, despite several complaints of fly tipping, other than sending 'the boy' to shove some Heras fencing up at the open entrance. Doesn't stop the pigeons getting in and out though, as there's a huge gap at the top. Unfortunately, we also have idiots round here who are clueless about feeding birds, and put bread out, which just encourages them. All the roadworks, and the nearby water works, we've had for 2 years hasn't helped. Blokes chucking crusts etc.

 

Many thanks for reply. We live in Nottinghamshire area, used to be mining town land, the soil is lovely, compared to clay soil we had in Worcestershire. We have seen very few slugs ( so far, since been here ) . We want to grow veg/salads only in raised beds and container gardening, in back garden. We moved as many of the the flower perenials that were here when moved in, to front garden for cutting flowers for house, and all the herbs, and leave them to take their own chance to survive. We are making as much HM compost as we can. l spent a fortune over the last few yrs on bought soil and it was terrible quality , even though it was from good companies. Runner beans, tom seeds etc all failed to germinate in those bought soil this Spring, so we bought coir and resowed and got a late germination, but we got some things to harvest this Summer. We want to see what's possible to grow for Winter Salads, ie carrots, not many , as just the 2 of us. and l think l'd like to give turnips a go as we like stews in Autumn/Winter, again never grown them before. We did manage to keep a few salad herbs growing over last winter in the small greenhouse as we covered them well with bubble wrap and it seemed to work.

 

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