winter ready in the garden

Oh that’s efficient!

I am waiting for my garden to stop flowering and leaf fall until I Complete the autumn clear up

2c forecast one night next week so that should sort stuff out

Our garden is nowhere near ready for a full shut down yet.

The schizostylis are still fabulous, we have tons of berries on the pyrocantha, the leaves are nearly gone from the crabapple but the fruit is still there, the sedums are a fabulous colour, the mock orange seems to bloom all year and the ammonia is just starting to show colour. Even the busy lizzies are still going.

We have cut down the Japanese anemones so we have a clear view of all the greenery and bright colours.

Crikey Biba70 where are you, the last week has been atrocious where I am (mid Wales), my garden’s like a quagmire. My fuchsias are still beautiful, but the leaves on most trees and shrubs have been blown off.

I am up in Swiss mountains- the glorious Jura, about 3500 ft.

Kitty, yes I have left all the sedum- will cut them down once frost gets to them and they go limp.

It's so very very wet here that my tidying up was rained off a couple of weeks ago. We need four or five dry days before I can start cutting back and putting the garden to bed.

We are surrounded by huge forest trees, none in our garden, but all the leaves fill our front area. I will be out raking up the leaves until at least Christmas.

Each year I gather up enough leaves to fill 10 or more cubic metre gravel bags, which I have to take to the tip because I simply do not have the space to store 2 or 3 years crop of leaves, while they rot down (I would be hard pressed to keep 1 years).

With the announcement of another lockdown, when, no doubt, the tips will be closed, come rain or shine for the next four days I will be trying to gather up as many bags of leaves as I can and get them to the tip before lockdown starts, otherwise by December our house will be hidden behind huge heaps of leaves.

oh dear- btq instead of raking, I pick them up with the lawnmower- it breaks them down so they take a lot less space- but then bags even heavier perhaps. Yes, we are lucky to have plenty of space so we can keep all 9 composts going over 3 years- and empty 3 every year.

you might be better to not pick leaves and let nature take its course and the worms, etc, to get them this year. Good for the soil.

Unfortunately, the amount of leaves coming off about a dozen forest sized trees is far too immense to harvest with a lawn mower. We are at the end of a short access road ending with a low brick wall completely across it. The prevailing winds blow all the leaves, off these trees , straight down the access road to the wall, where they pile up.

I do not mind the leaf raking, it is in fact my favourite gardening job, I love autumn and the sound of the leaves, their smell and kicking them ito large heaps delights me. but I like to do it as and when, as the mood strikes. lock down means I need to do as much as I can in 4 days, and rather rubs the edge off it.

My garden is taken care of by a husband & wife gardening fairies. They are so good, they prune, mulch, fertilise and tidy all the shrubbery, flower beds and border hedges. I wouldn't be without them.

I have though, one of those dilemmas. The soil is characteristic of the area, it's a black, sandy soil, looks like soot and feels like sand. Grass will not grow in it, well it does, but not lush green. What does grow and has become dominant, are small dandelions.

I could, as I have at the front of the house, replace the lawn either with artificial turf or pebbles or something similar. But, those dandelions are home to a very small beetle, and that beetle lays eggs on the dandelions. Being on the edge of The New Forest, we get so many rare birds who feed on the eggs, larvae and the beetles that populate those dandelions.

For now the birds win out, but I would love to have a lush green lawn.

I still have fushia bushes that are flowering, masses of buds stil to open. My geraniums are also still flowering as are the dhalias. Dead heading violas and wintr flowering pansies every other day. The Violas are beautiful but i am disappointed with the pansies. I was feeding them every week but stopped as i read somewhere too much food just promotes greenery. Anyone know if that is true. They are in pots and hanging baskets.

Dh and I just spent the morning trying to put the garden to bed but there was very little we could do.

I’ve planted about 2/3 of my tulips and half is being tidied, but it still looks a mess.

I aim for RHS standard but always end up with allotment standard

Still got great weather - but I am good and ready now. Planted some wild tulips and lots of poets narcissi (pheasant eye)- again for that natural look. Must get a bag of compost and mulch to top up a bit as could not plant deep due to so much limestone here. And then just the sedums to cut when heavy frosts some, but they still look good and add colour.

I so hope we get a true, snowy winter this year.