We have been cleaning up in the allotment, getting ready for winter. We are slowly cleaning portions of the veggie quadrants and mulching them with spent plants from the flower garden. We finished off a big job which was the emptying one of the compost bins. We bagged the self-made compost and stalled them out along the backside of the garden house. It was heavy graft but oh, so rewarding. It had me rubbing my palms together and grinning like Ichabod Cane counting his gold coins late at night. The plots are looking pretty good, but not perfect because of the mole who destroyed some of the green manure plants. In the foreground above, you can see some of the piece-meal plant debris mulch and the incompletely germinated green manure patches beyond the Borage that did survive. This bed is looking like all the beds should have looked. Remember when I gave the strawbs a very close haircut after the blooming? Well, just look at them now! Another job was to tidy-up the trottoir outside the lottie. I have to say, I was quite chuffed with the result. Finally the last foto showing the fading bean patch. I say fading, but the runners are still producing well and we eat them regularly. By the way, this foto ties together the first foto in this thread. Have you twigged it yet? The mulch used on this portion of the quadrant are ferns. The first foto was the root system shopped through the middle as the Bride was chopping things up in the compost bin. It looks to me like I can see the base of all the leaves that have and would have come. This plant had set up shop right at the edge of the path and of course was so wide that it impeded walking. Particularly annoying after a rain.
Cheers Daniel. I know you can appreciate the work, you work so hard yourself. We are at a sort of “roadblock” at the moment because I want to continue preparing the plots, but the plant material from the flower garden is still alive, so I can’t clip the stems off and lay them on the plots. I guess that I will just have to enjoy their beauty a little longer.
Looks good, Sjoerd. I have a few more weeks before I start putting mine to bed for the winter. I have a huge maple tree, that drops its leaves for me to use as mulch. This city has a few weeks where, if you put your leaves out in the street they pick them up to compost. Of course this tree never drops its leaves until after the cut off, but they still pick them up. Just takes a little longer. Last year I bagged a lot because I knew I was raising my beds. But even doing that and covering everything with leaves I still put a massive amount out for them to pick up. They're usually about up to my knees.....and yes my daughter in law teases me with all the short jokes when I say things like that. But I tease her about being the jolly green giant (she's 5'10" or 11")
No garden work today, just a stroll. I had audiologist appointment this am, dental later this afternoon. Soaked and cooked white beans for casserole for supper. I'm pretty happy with the xeriscape experiment underway. It gives me a sense of hope and purpose. Also, a lot of the plants will add a dimension full of luxuriant scent, and the grey / white leaf plants add a dimension of brightness even when not blooming. They shouldn't need even 1/4 of the summer watering next year, when established. They will need a lot more wood chip mulch this winter. We have a Mt. Everest of those, all for free, already.
I really enjoy seeing how you both care for your soil and your garden. It looks so lovely Sjoerd. All of your care clearly shows.
