popular What have you done today in the Garden?

Emptied the big tubs in the front under the kitchen window ready to plant the bulbs.

 

Picked the remaining Apples from one of our trees as the fallers are landing on one of the patios and bruising.

Cleaned up all the potted Hostas and moved them into their sheltered Winter home.

Divided and replanted some Lime Marmalade Heucheras.

Tidied up the overgrown Hellebores.

Had to do another round of Acorn clearance , there was an amazing amount considering the last clean up was only a couple of days ago.

 

Oreti you have the same clean up problem with acorns as I do with pine needles. The needles are from trees that are diseased - beetle kill. 60’- 80’ trees that need removing. Getting the trees cut down next week over 8 trees. I have mountains of pine needles. You could bury an entire house with them.

 

Most of the trees that surround us are not too bad but this one main troublemaker is an issue that we have complained about before without much luck. They all have TPOs on them ( Tree Preservation Orders) . In the 43 years that we lived here we have only once been granted permission in getting one cut down and that was because it had become badly damaged in the storm of 1987.

https://weather.metoffice.gov.uk/learn-about/weather/case-studies/great-storm

 

You don't want Pine Trees anywhere near your house here in the South. They grow taller here than all the other native trees and become magnets for lightening. Many people have had them hit and had them fall right through their roof.
We don't have issues with tree preservation ordinances here. If you own the land you own what grows on it.

 

Oregon and 2 other states has experienced some very horrific winds storms . Much like Oreti has referred the severe wind storm in the UK in 1987. There is no other windstorm that has had the power and deadliness of the monster blast of Dec. 12, 1995: Four people died in the hurricane-force winds that caused $240 million in damages spread over Oregon, Washington and Northern California.

These winter wind storms we experience occasionally seem to be a good reason for removing 8 damaged trees and several others trimmed next week. Unfortunately a sad event. The list of damaged trees are : Douglas fir, white pine, cherry trees, filbert hazelnut, apple tree, austrian pine ,italian cyprus, and a heavy trim on 5 magnolia’s. The PNW has 4-5 species of bark beetles. A huge infestation of native bark beetles has caused significant damage and loss in my garden. These trees are 60’ or more in height and all were tiny seedlings when I planted them 32 years ago. I treated the borers for the last few years with a Bayer product. Between the beetles and trapping the ground squirrels that feed on tree roots my garden has suffered a significant loss in precious trees. Even the tree bark chips cannot be utilized due to the infestation .

Sometimes letting go of something cherished can be best described as protecting property and life is far more important . Sometimes your the bug and sometimes your the windshield. I don’t want to be either, but sometimes there is no choice.

 

Drop apples and other fruits are good to make applesauce and applebutter. You can cut the bruises out, and use the good parts. When I had my apple orchard, I could not reach many of the apples, and we always used the drops for making applesauce and applebutter.

 

Just a walk round this morning. Nothing of any urgency needs doing.
The garden is looking quite tired now, devoid of much colour if you don't count green.

Some of the "residents" are still making an effort.

The heathers are awaiting their turn in the troughs.










Very few berries on our Sorbus, it has these "quiet" years now and again.



The leaves on the acer palmatums are, "on the turn." They can go "fiery red" before they fall if the frost doesn't get them first. I'm pleased the grass below this one didn't die off...again.



This one will get a bit of shaping during the winter.

 

It took me 3 days to do these pots, the largest ones took one day to empty the fuchsias, snap dragons, pot marigolds and Erigeron and pot up the fuchsias and Erigeron. Day 2 I half emptied the pots and planted tulips and hyacinths with polyanthus on top with fresh compost.
The smaller pots had gladioli and Erigeron,so i cleaned up the gladioli and potted up the Erigeron, half emptied the pots and planted tulips and polyanthus with fresh compost.
Scrapped up all of the moss on the driveway and swept it.

It took me that long because of the time and my lower back was complaining.

 

DHR JUST BEAUTIFUL.. Lots of pots with groomed plants ready to shine.
I think your fall garden is fantastic. Most of my garden is set for fall and ready to dump all their leaves or simply leave the garden til next spring.

I spy some black mondo grass in a pic? Mine are full of berries.

 

Lots going on in Stewbie's gardens!

I've been gradually removing the last of the summer container garden from the deck and patio. Not much to see.

I installed the hen light on a timer to see if it inspires them to lay more eggs. Eight hens (and a rooster), but only one or two eggs a day, at the moment. Get to work, hens!

 

The front view. All of the container kitchen garden plants - peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, strawberries - have been harvested and are gone now. I moved the strawberry plants back to the main kitchen garden.

 

I was doing some of my raking in the front of my orchard. (the apple trees are long gone, but my poor cherry trees that the cicadas killed are still there until son gets around to cutting them down. There are other trees, but I still call it the orchard.) I raked up several loads of leaves and put them in my compost pile to one side away from the bird house gourds. I do NOT want to bury the bird house gourds. That lady will come and buy them I hope when we get frost and I do not want to plant any for spring. At least not there. I may plant some in one of my barrels. I did find a couple of pumpkins that I did not know were there. I brought them in. They are small, but that is fine. I want to plant giant watermelons in my compost in the spring. The vines can get composted after frost, and leaves, and horse manure, and other dead plants after frost. There are a few more pumpkins on the vine ripening.

The ginger still looks great, so I will wait for frost to harvest it. I guess those leaves can go in the compost too.

I still need to mow at least one more time before frost, but I don't want the leaves in with the grass.

So far, my riders are still not fixed, so I am trying to find someone else to fix them. I mow approx 2 1/2 to 3 acres, and a push takes days.... I don't know exactly how much I mow, that is a rough guess. It is a LOT.

I have been trying to keep things watered as we have not had any rain since mid September and it is bone dry again.

 

A little late but moved my fruit enclosure to a different location this past weekend. Which entailed moving fencing and Tposts.Melons and strawberries didn't do well in previous location. Plus it is closer to main garden.

 

A few more garden "housekeeping jobs."
Mowed the back lawn and blew fallen rhodo leaves to the back of the border. They don't rot down so I'll have to brush them up. Same with fallen bamboo leaves in the back border, might clear them at the week-end.
I've been busy lately. I had "eyes looked at," last week, no problems. I've golf tomorrow. Dentist for a check-up on Thursday and ears syringed on Friday.

I pruned off all black spot infested leaves on the roses. Scraped out the moss between the flags on the rose patio, then did both patios and paths with "Wet n' Forget."