Winter preparation ... lots to do

Lizzie72

Callistemon

Lizzie72 your hardy geranium looks like Rozanne but mine is looking very sad, never seen it looking like that before.

Yes, it is Rozanne - it’s very healthy

Oh dear. I must go and talk to mine tomorrow!

Yes purpledaffodil I shall be taking some geraniums (pink) out of containers next week and replanting (not decided with what) but others (red) are still blooming. As is my lavender, it’s never still been flowering this late. Can’t bear to cut it back yet. I suspect I shall be cutting things back, tidying up and planting bulbs when it’s freezing cold!

Callistemon

Kali2
Did the Chelsea Chop work?

Everything I Chelsea chopped picked up immediately, and then was hacked terribly by a massive hail storm! Some recovered and flowered again- some took longer and will probably not have time to flower second time before snow.

My prized black nigra elder tree, brought from our UK garden was just about to flower when the hail struck and it was all mashed up. Leaves are now gorgeous, deeply cut and deep wine colour, but again, I suppose it will not have time to flower and fruit. Same for the rowans. Poor birds are suffering in the mountains due to lack of rowan, elder and other fruit- put out sunflower seeds the other day and they went crazy!

Is anybody replacing the geraniums in window baskets and pots? Would usually have done it by now but they are still blooming well in the front of the house which is south facing and I hate to remove them.

Glorious day here, quite hot at times and DH has a sunburned nose now.Finished all the jobs ( regards tidying the garden) and covered up some of the garden furniture, just leaving enough to sit out for the rest of the month.
Leaving pots of dahlias and pelargoniums as long as possible as they give so much colour.Nerines out now and looking good, and fuchsia too,Still harvesting apples and tomatoes grown outdoors.
Not much to do until leaf fall ( and then, being surrounded by trees, )it never ends.☹️
Owls hooting madly at dusk and into the night....We need ear plugs.

Callistemon

report
Re-pot!!

Too late!
I have reported them for taking up too much space?

Callistemon

Lizzie72 your hardy geranium looks like Rozanne but mine is looking very sad, never seen it looking like that before.

Yes, it is Rozanne - it’s very healthy

I’ve only just able to get back in my garden after my patio was relaid in September then I found out I’d had a TIA (mini stroke) earlier this year following my eye test so have had several hospital visits and medication changes. I now have decorators in for three weeks which is hampering me again.

Luckily the heavy pruning of bushes was done in September by a gardener but I do want to clear some weeds and ground cover plants. Last year I put down a deep layer of soil improver and left it to over winter and it made a big difference to the quality of my very poor soil. My son is going to help me do it again this year so I’m planning a few goes at tidying up over the next couple of weeks, I can now only do an hour or so at a time due to arthritis but I enjoy pottering.

I'm usually up to scratch with the cutting back and tidying but I've never known such an insane time of plants reflowering out of season and I'm not prepared to cut them back. All very peculiar but I'm going with the grow(!!). I've a wonderful Wisteria which is going so insane it could be a trifid. It's going to be a challenge.

I’ve got some shrubs I’d like to report Callistemon, particularly the non-berried pyracantha! Would Monty be interested do you think?

I’ve pottered about a bit in the garden this week, mainly dead heading and cutting back dead stems on plants. As many are still flowering, including the petunias, I’m leaving them be for the moment. I actually collected a lot of petunia seeds yesterday, but not sure if they’ll come true when I plant them into seed trays next spring, but I’m willing to give them a go.

Yesterday, I planted some allium bulbs in the front borders, so they will be something to look forward to late spring/early summer next year.

The grass could do with a trim, too.

Did anyone see the gardeners world programme last night all about trees? I really enjoyed it, they really are fascinating plants.

There’s very little to cut back in my garden. Penstemons, roses, asters, gaura, monkshood, Japanese anemones, salvia, persicaria all flowering. The dahlias are very good this year too and the hydrangea flowers have taken on beautiful pinky tints as they age. Back in the 50s and 60s everything would be cut back this month and winter bedding and bulbs would be in, then the garden was sleeping until spring. Climate change!

Spent the afternoon belatedly digging potatoes. The whole garden has gone to hell in a hand basket this summer. I think it was my reaction to a year of having first DD and then DH dangerously ill. Once it was all sorted I sort of collapsed in a heap, what gardening was done was done late and half heartedly.

However not all is doom and disaster. Last week I harvested 20 beautiful big corn-cobs and the one courgette plant that survived has provided me with nearly 20lbs of courgettes.

I love autumn, and I love autumn gardening I hope the weather stays dry for another week so that I can get the veg patch sorted and put away until spring, so I can then start on the rest of the garden.

report
Re-pot!!

Lizzie72 your hardy geranium looks like Rozanne but mine is looking very sad, never seen it looking like that before.

Kali2
Did the Chelsea Chop work?

What are you up to in the garden?

I sat in the lovely sunshine ?
To be fair, I was thinking about what I need to do and DH pruned back the clematis which had not totally recovered from the cold snap earlier in the year.
I did a lot of pruning of herbaceous plants last week but just noticed that Rozanne has gone very brown - should I chop it back?

Is it the wrong time to report some small shrubs - I assume it's ok as they should be making more root in the winter.
They may need to go in the greenhouse over winter as they're not totally hardy.

I spent the morning relaxing at the beach with my husband, my sons, and their families, and the weather was glorious.

There is a lot to do in both the garden and on the allotment, but I’m feeling really tired and I just can’t motivate myself. We had our two year old granddaughter to stay for a couple of nights last week and she was a little pickle on one of them so I’m short of sleep.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202110/medium-569961-97267c16-0377-4b12-9f7b-5712ea935dfe.jpeg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202110/medium-876006-85db67fd-3b2f-4683-9442-eb8f9b19e78f.jpeg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202110/medium-370881-16c1dedf-28bd-4397-819e-87fb1ebaf4e3.jpeg

The sedums all coming out here, and there are still hardy geraniums, and some valiant roses! I used to cut lots back in late autumn, but now tend to leave it til Spring, as apparently better for wildlife.

Mine is still in flower and today it is very mild and sunny and lots of red admirals have visited. I reckon they are one of biggest butterflies.

Whitewave well that’s very frustrating, our fortnightly garden waste bin collection missed a couple of weeks, staff shortages meant prioritising household waste.
Shandy we had to get rid of our self seeded buddleia, it was lifting the paving slabs, I’m looking at dwarf ones, I’d like one back for the butterflies.

Thanks Whitewavemark2, I love seeing the birds hopping around on it. I was worried when I moved here that I'd not see any birds, and although I haven't seen my favourite long tailed tits, I have got a barn owl

Shandy57

Where are you that you might get snow Kali2? I'm coastal Northumberland and luckily we don't ever get much, with the exception of the dreadful Beast from the east in Feb/March 2018.

I'm wondering when to cut back my buddleia as the blue tits seem to be finding it interesting.

Cut back buddleia (sp?)at end of winter

We have no collections here, not for compost, not for rubbish, not for anything. I am lucky that I have lots of space and 9 large compost bins on the go all the time.

For the golden rod, as said, do not put flowerheads in seed in compost- but put in rubbish bin. If I were you I'd wait till spring and pull up a lot as it comes up. I love gaillarda.

Don’t remind me!! Usually by now I am well away with the autumn clear up, but the compost bin men are on strike, my compost bin is stuffed and I have no petrol to take stuff to the tip.

I am fed up!!