It is such typically fall weather here at the moment— wind, rain and a sort of moist coldness that penetrates one’s raps. It has been this way for days and days; however, the sun shows itself from the blanket of clouds from time to time. I don’t think that normal folks would attempt doing gardening chores with this sort of challenge, but it is the Low Countries and that is just simply the way it is here. If we waited for the weather to clear, we would never get anything done. Right then, nothing for it but to get stuck-in. We have been going for a few hours almost every day doing a little here and a little there in-between the showers and sometimes during the showers if it wasn’t too hard. We have been cleaning the canals along two sides of our allotment plots. It’s the reeds, the reeds. It isn’t enough to have bindweed, ground elder and mare’s tail to deal with along with the less pernicious run-of-the-mill weeds—no, we have to keep the canals clear so the water can flow out to sea, keeping our feet dry. It is the law that this must be done every year by those along the water. Aside from the fact that is mandatory for the country, I just do not want reed in my garden. It is very difficult to grt rid of once it gets in. Oh dear, I am getting way off track here. Sorry. Where was I now. Oh yes, talking about jobs we are/ have been doing. One of the big jobs is to clear-away dead stems of perennial flowers from the various beds. We have done a little of that, but I do not want to remove too much from the beds and around the stands of the various permanent plants. Usually I leave almost all the debris until the spring. This has resulted in the plots becoming much higher than the paths. All the flower plots have paths as borders. The contents of the plots are significantly encroaching upon the paths, so we launched into a big program to clean along the paths. This is not a small job, it is hard graft. Me doing the knee work and my Bride doing the hoe and spade work. Some piccies follow: This is what the Bride calls our gieterboom (watering can tree). The Weigelia is beginning to bloom again. We are also filling up our leaf bin. There is a short path near our garden shed. Over the years the Wisteria has begun to encroash, causing us to step on the soil to the side of the path. The solution was to move the path. Ifyou look left of the path, you can see the dark soil. That is where the path was We tidied the stone work up and swept it off. Thirty minutes later the Wisteria had lost more leaves again. It looks as if we have not swept at all. Oh well, the work is done. The paths are almost done, just a few more meters. The veggie beds are now thickly covered with plant debris for the winter. All except the Brussels sprouts. There are still five plants.
Looks like you are doing a great job with the clearing away. It's amazing how much the plants do grow!
Too right, Cayu. My Bride has always been resolute about never moving a path to accommodate plants. This time; however, she sees the need and the fact that the massive wisteria cannot be moved. I find cleaning up an enjoyable work, I could do with less rain while I work though.
I bet. Nothing like cold wet rain. Is rather have snow. But you Netherlanders are hardy stock. (That is what you are called, right?)
Its Nederlanders, technically. Chuckle. BTW, they say that snow is on the way. I think that it will be wet snow though.
Good job @Sjoerd Very peaty looking soil I used to live on the Somerset levels, similar setting to you I think, very low down, lots of reeds and ditches called Rhynes
Hoi Zigs, way back in the day this whole garden area was a bog and I still find bits and bobs from the 17th and 18th century in my soil. Apparently this bog was where local inhabitants threw their trash, their trash being broken pottery and long-stemmed pipes. I have posted piccies on here in the past. I used to gather them, but now when I find something, I just leave it. So, the soil here—it is what we call “veengrond”. I think that may well mean peat, but I am not 100% sure. If you look how it was formed over the centuries, it almost has to be. I keep wondering if we will ever dig-up a veen-man, like in Denmark. Ha,ha. Interesting word, rhynes. We have had Brits visiting here and they call the smaller drainage canals, that...or “ditches”. It was confusing to me, for ditch means something else to me...you know, like what one can find at the side of some roads. We call our smaller canals sloot, or sloten (pl). But also interestingly, rhyne is also like the great river that flows out of Germany and through our country, draining into the North Sea. Zigs, it looks like I am going down a rabbit hole here, so I shall put a cap on it. Thanks for your comments. I will only say that I know of the Somerset Levels and the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads. Great expansive reed beds with water channels dissecting them. Similar indeed. In fact, Norfolk lies on the same longitudinal line as we. The Levels is such a lovely place.
Very interesting Sjoerd I thought of the similarity between Rhynes and The Rhine too, probably all those Anglo Saxons and Vikings charging about the place I made a video of the levels... Your Veen man might be smoking a pipe when you dig him up
Yes, no doubt sitting up in a chair like Jeremy Bentham. That is a very decent vid. I enjoyed seeing the dias, or slides of the landscapes. It brought back memories. I regret that I can’t recall if it is the Quantocks, Mendips or the Polden Hills that you have shown there. It is really lovely though.
Well, @Sjoerd that's a job well done. Your garden looks very neat and tidy considering the time of year. Pat yourselves on the shoulders from me. I move paths to accomodate the plants all the time. It depends on which plant of course, but some are hard to grow so I tend to stretch a bit not to disturb them once they're settled.
